The Metallic Replacement
by cyberkiller125
Summary: When Sonic dies to save others, someone unexpected decides to take his place as the hero, Metal Sonic. Now Metal must learn to become a hero while also helping Tails through his grief over Sonic's death.
1. A Hero's Sacrifice

Sonic stood on the edge of a cliff that was overlooking Central City. It was near noon right now and the weather was clear. From the distance he could see the Tornado, which Tails was flying. Since Eggman had been quiet for a few days, they had decided to take a day to relax and Sonic had decided to visit Central City. However, Sonic had some suspicions that Eggman might eventually show up, so he decided to have Tails fly around so just in case he spotted Eggman, he could notify Sonic and he could go and stop him.

So far, Tails hadn't reported any sighting of him or any of his robots. Sonic decided that he would give Tails another hour, and if Eggman hadn't been sighed by then, he would have Tails land the plane and they could explore the city for a bit.

But right now, Sonic felt relaxed. Despite the sounds of the city in the distance, he felt peaceful here. Almost as if he could just lie down and relax.

'Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea.' Sonic thought. 'Tails hasn't seen Eggman as of right now, might as well just rest right now.'

Sonic went down and lied on his back and began to drift off into sleep.

Suddenly, he heard a beeping noise.

'Darn, just as I was about to go to sleep.' He sarcastically thought.

He got up and got out a small device, the device was connected to the Miles Electric, so it could make and receive calls from it. He pressed a button on it and Tails voice came through.

"Sonic, Sonic are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here Tails." Sonic replied. "I was just about to take a nap, what is it?"

"I just saw Eggman and a few of his robots roaming around the city together." Tails explained. "A couple of them are just his typical Egg-Pawns, but there's another that I haven't quite seen before."

"Maybe it was that secret project he said he was working on in our last encounter with him." Sonic guessed thinking back. "He did say he was making something that would defeat me once and for all."

"Whatever this new robot is, you better go stop him and Eggman." Tails said.

"I'm on it." Sonic said.

He pressed the button again, and the call ended.

Putting the device away, he ran off the side of the cliff and towards the city.

* * *

In the city, Eggman paraded his minions in his Eggmobile as people stared.

In front of Eggman were the Egg-Pawns that Tails had mentioned, and the new robot. The robot's body was orange, aside from it's gray arms and legs. Both arms had three claw like fingers on each hand, with holes in the hands. On the body itself, it was colored orange and had four cylinders on the back of it. It's eyes were located in a visor, where they were simply blue.

The robots scanned the area, searching for any threats.

Suddenly, a blue sphere suddenly came around and destroyed the two Egg-Pawns, and landed in front of Eggman and the orange Robot.

Sonic had arrived.

"So Eggman." he said crossing his arms. "I'll take it you're not here for shopping."

"Ah Sonic, I've been looking for you." Eggman said with an evil grin.

"Gotta ask, what's with that new robot of yours?" Sonic said glaring at the robot. "An updated version of your standard robots?"

"Oh, this?" Eggman said indicating to the orange robot. "This is a new robot of mine. I call it, The Tortoise."

"So it's gonna be slow?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow. "Gotta say not pretty impressive."

"Oh just try and attack it." Eggman replied with a grin.

Sonic smirked. "If you insist."

Sonic charged up a spindash, and rolled straight towards the robot.

Just before Sonic was about to hit the robot, the robot extended one of its arms and created a shield. Sonic ran right into it and ended up bouncing right back, receiving a slight shock in the process.

"Ow what the?" Sonic said getting up looking at the robot as it retracted it's shield.

"As you can see." Eggman began as he explained what the robot did. "The Tortoise is made to easily defend itself against your attacks. It had a tougher metal and also runs on a new energy source, so it can never run out of power for the shields it makes."

"Well, that's great. You're not making this easy for me are you Eggman." Sonic said.

"I think I'll leave you two to play." Eggman said before he flew away on his Eggmobile, leaving Sonic alone with the robot.

Sonic stared at the robot, contemplating what to do.

'Well, some of my usual attacks won't do any good since it can defend itself against me. Maybe Eggman focused so much on defense that he didn't put any weapons on it.' Sonic thought to himself.

As if the robot heard his thoughts, it raised one of their arms, it's palm open, and fired a ball of energy at Sonic.

Sonic eye's widened and managed to dodge it before it hit him.

'Okay, scratch that. It can fight back.' Sonic thought.

He decided he might need help, once again he got out the communication device and pressed the button.

"Hello?" Tails voice came through.

"Hi Tails." Sonic said as he dodged the blasts the robot made. "Turns out Eggman's new robot is a bit difficult for me to beat. Can you fly over and scan the robot so you can give me a way to beat this thing."

"On it." Tails said and Sonic heard him put the communicator down.

Sonic continued to dodge the Tortoise's blasts of energy and tried to attack it, while he waited for Tails to analyze the robot. As he did that he spotted the Tornado flying above.

Finally Tails spoke. "Okay, I think I might know how to beat it."

"Tell me now." Sonic said. "I can't keep dodging this robot forever."

"Okay, judging from my observations, I recommend attacking it from the back." he heard Tails say. "It looks like whatever is powering the thing is in some of the cylinders in the back."

"So smash the cylinder's and the robot should deactivate." Sonic said got it.

"Still though." Tails continued. "This power source isn't like anything I've ever seen, I need to analyze it to know it's attributes."

As Tails was saying all this, the Tortoise spotted the Tornado in the sky and aimed an energy blast at the plane.

Sonic's eye's widened. "TAILS LOOK OUT!" he yelled over the communicator.

He attempted to stop it, but the Tortoise used it's other hand to make a shield and Sonic ran straight into it. It then fired the energy blast at the tornado.

Thankfully, Tails had gotten the message and was turning away from the area where the robot was in. However, the energy blast still found it's target, clipping the Tornado's wing slightly.

Tails looked at the damage and realized he couldn't stay airborne like this.

"Sonic, that robot hit part of a wing, I'm gonna have to land somewhere." He said over the communicator.

"Okay, hope you land safely." Sonic said before hanging up and facing the robot.

"Alright." he said to it. "You're about to learn that nobody hurts my friend."

He then charged at the robot again. This time though just as it made it's shield, he leaped over it and hit one of the cylinders, knocking it off.

The Tortoise turned around and formed a shield in one of it's hands and attempted to whack Sonic in the face. Apparently the loss of one of it's power cells slowed down it's reaction time, as Sonic dodged it pretty easily.

Sonic then began to charge at the Tortoise again. The robot had apparently learned form it's mistake and when Sonic attempted to leap over it to hit the power cells again, it shielded itself from Sonic's leap. Following his movements so that Sonic couldn't hit the power cells again. The Tortoise then hit Sonic with the shield knocking him back.

"Ok, the jump over and hit him strategy isn't going to work." Sonic muttered to himself. "Time to change tactics."

As Sonic was battling the Tortoise, Eggman was watching the whole thing from above in his Egg-mobile.

"Hmm. I don't like where this is heading." he muttered as Sonic dodged another blast from the Tortoise. "I think it's time to bring some assistance in the fight."

He pressed a button and a robotic voice came though. "Yes, Doctor?"

"It's time for you to step in." Eggman said.

"Affirmative." the voice said and the line cut off.

Meanwhile, Sonic had managed to find a way to bypass The Tortoise's current defense strategy and had slid under the robot and kicked another one of it's power cells off it's back.

"Error: Power capacity at 50 percent efficiency." he head the robot monotonously say.

"Okay if I can keep this up, I can have this bot down in about a couple of minutes and go check on Tails." Sonic said to himself.

He was about to charge at The Tortoise again when suddenly, he was slammed from the side and became pinned against a wall.

Recovering from the daze, Sonic stared at his new assailant and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw who it was.

"Metal?!" he said in surprise as he stared into the red optics of his enemy.

"Hello my copy." Metal Sonic said coldly. "And goodbye."

Metal raised a claw at Sonic, but Sonic managed to break free from Metal's grasp and dodge the slash.

"Come on Metal, can you wait your turn? I already have one robot I'm fighting right now." Sonic asked looking at Metal.

"Negative, the doctor has ordered your elimination." His robotic copy

Sonic sighed. "Thought you might say that."

Metal then charged at Sonic with his thruster's, which Sonic barely managed to dodge.

While Metal was fighting Sonic, The Tortoise, seeing an opportunity aimed it's hand, charged an energy blast, and fired it towards Sonic. The blast hit Sonic, knocking him to the ground.

Recovering from the knockdown, he saw Metal above him, his arm raised above him, ready to slam down on Sonic's face. Sonic spin-dashed into Metal, causing Metal to stumble a bit.

Sonic moved away from Metal and the Tortoise and stared at them, trying to consider his options.

'I can't fight both of them at once.' Sonic thought to himself. 'I probably could have fought Metal well if he was alone, but I also have this Tortoise bot to deal with and it's not making things any easier.'

He looked around, trying to figure out a way to fight both of them at the same time.

He then did something that Metal didn't expect. He ran to a nearby alleyway and went into it.

"Running away from me?" Metal asked. "That is very unlike you Sonic."

Metal Sonic took to the air and tracked Sonic's progress in the alleyway from above. He calculated that Sonic's current path through the alleyway would lead him to a dead end. His thought process then came up with an optimal plan to take down Sonic in the alleyway.

"Follow Sonic's path through the alleyway." he said to The Tortoise. "We'll cut him off there."

Metal then flew over the alley, where he tracked Sonic. While the Tortoise began to move towards the alley at a jogging pace.

In the alley, Sonic was running, turning various corners in the alley up until he came to a dead end.

He was about to run back when he head Metal's voice again.

"Don't even try it. The Tortoise is coming in at the other end of the alley."

Sonic looked back and he saw Metal gliding down in front of the wall.

"You know, it probably would have made sense for you to cut me off I the front of the alley, not the end." Sonic remarked. "Just pointing out a flaw in the plan is all I'm saying."

"Negative, with the Tortoise's shield capabilities, it ensures that you cannot escape." Metal replied.

Sonic slowly began to walk backwards and put his hands up. "Well, it looks like you got me."

"Indeed, all of my possible paths in our current encounter ended up here." Metal replied.

Sonic could hear the footsteps of the Tortoise getting closer. With two powerful robots surrounding him, he needed to figure out a plan to take them both out.

Sonic then smirked.

"Why wait for the Tortoise to arrive though?" Sonic asked Metal. "Why not charge at me and finish me off?"

Metal tilted his head. "That is not a sound strategy for the plan I made."

"Oh do you really think so?" Sonic asked as he listed to the footsteps of the Tortoise grow louder. "And where have those plans and strategy's gotten you? Me kicking your butt."

He then opened is arms. "Besides, the Tortoise is arriving soon and as you said, my only exit out of here is cut off. So why not finish me here?"

Metal simply stared at Sonic for a moment, processing what Sonic said.

It was true that Sonic had beaten him multiple times, but most of those was with the help of his friends. When he had faced Sonic when he was alone, he had nearly beaten him, but Sonic had always managed to pull through.

But now, Sonic had nowhere to go. The Tortoise was close to arriving at the other end of the alley, and it could easily cut off Sonic's escape with it's shield, leaving Sonic at the mercy of Metal.

Metal's thought process finally made a decision.

He glared at Sonic through his red optics.

"Very well." he said. "Your words have convinced me to finish you now."

Metal then began to charge up his thruster to full power.

Sonic got ready, he had to time this perfectly or else it wouldn't work.

As Metal continued to charge his thruster, Sonic could hear the Tortoises footsteps as if the robot was right next to him.

Sonic chanced a look back, and saw that the robot was just coming into view and was making it's way just behind where Sonic was.

"Thruster is fully charged." Metal said. "Goodbye Sonic."

Metal charged at full speed towards Sonic, his claws outstreached in an open grasp, Sonic simply just stood there as the distance between him and Metal rapidly closed.

'Now.' Sonic thought to himself.

Sonic jumped off the ground and flew above the Tortoise.

Almost as if the world was in slow motion, Sonic witnessed what happened.

He saw Metal stab through the Tortoise's armor as if it was made of butter, jamming his hand through it. The Tortoise meanwhile, was paying attention to Sonic, thinking he was going to go for his power cells again. It had deployed it's shield, not paying attention to Metal. The force of Metals thruster's brought him and the Tortoise to a wall, breaking some of the Tortoises remaining energy cells.

Sonic landed back on the ground on his feet and watched as Metal pulled his hand out of the Tortoises armor before turning to him.

"Looks like you missed." Sonic remarked.

He then spin-dashed towards Metal, this one being stronger, who was slammed into a pair of dumpsters. He then slumped to the ground in a sitting position.

Sonic put his hands on his hips and looked at the two defeated robots.

'Well, that was a bit more difficult then expected but I came up on top otherwise.' He thought sighing in exhaustion.

He then heard the beeping noise of the communicator. He quickly got it out as he pressed the button.

"Sonic, are you there?" He heard Tails say.

"Yeah, I'm here. did you land safely?" Sonic said, wanting to know if his friend was safe.

"It was a bit of a rough landing, but I ended up fine. How's the fight with Eggman's new robot?"

Sonic looked at now ruined form of the Tortoise and then at Metal. "Well aside from an unexpected apperence from Metal, I managed to defeat both it and Metal."

"Metal was there? Well, it's a good thing." Tails said with a sigh of relief.

"While you were fighting, I've been analyzing the energy source that's powering the robot. I gotta say, it's unlike anything I've seen before."

"Okay, but what is it?" Sonic asked.

"It seams like this source can power a machine for years, maybe even a century. However it seams like that if you don't handle it correctly, it becomes unstable."

"Well hopefully Eggman doesn't have any more of the stuff. What happens if..."

"Error: Energy source unstable."

Sonic froze and slowly turned his head towards the source of the sound.

He saw the Tortoise, the remaining cylinders that contained the energy source were now emitting an orange colored smoke.

"Sonic, what were you saying?" Tails asked

"Uh Tails." Sonic said the communicator in a worried tone. "What exactly happens if the energy becomes unstable?"

There was a moment of silence before Tails spoke again. "Oh no..."

"What is it?"

"If the energy source becomes unstable, it will blow up everything within a 3 mile radius."

"How long does it take?" Sonic asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

Tails sighed. "You have a minute and a half, maybe."

Sonic stood there quiet. He stared at the Tortoise's body, which was emitting more orange smoke.

There simply wasn't enough time to evacuate the area, not without people getting hurt, killed or left behind. Nor could he just throw the robot in the dumpster, as he doubted that it could hold the explosion the robot would cause.

This left him with only one option.

'No.' He thought to himself. 'There has to be another way.'

But that was the only option that he could do, the one that he didn't like at all.

He looked down at the ground and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry Tails." He said.

"Sonic what..."

He pressed the button, cutting Tails off.

He went to the Tortoise, picked up it's body and turned towards the alley exit. He then began to run.

As he did this, Metal began to look up and saw Sonic picking up the Tortoise and running away with it.

Metal was confused. What exactly was Sonic doing with the robot?

Metal activated his thruster and flew out of the alleyway, following Sonic's movements. He scanned the robot from afar, as he did so, warning signs flashed across his vision, warning of an explosion in less then a minute. There were also warnings to get out of the blast radius.

It only took Metal exactly half a second to figure out what was going on with the robot. The energy that was powering it had become unstable and it was about to explode.

Sonic seamed to frantically move through the city, running into various dead ends and trying to find an optimal path outside of the city. Eventually, he managed to find a path and ran out of the city. He didn't even stop once he'd cross the bridge that led out of the city.

He only came to a stop exactly 5 miles outside of the city in a forest. Just outside of any populated area. With only about 10 seconds left before the robot exploded.

Sonic placed the Tortoise down in the forest. Exhausted, he collapsed on the ground in a crouching position. He stared at the Tortoise for a moment before he then looked at the city.

"Error: energy levels critical, explosion imminent." He heard the Tortoise state.

"Well, not exactly how I expected to go." Sonic said to himself with a small smile on his face as he looked down. "But at least I went saving lives."

The Tortoise seamed to glow orange for a moment, before it blew apart in a thousand pieces, and Sonic closed his eyes as the blast reached him.


	2. The Funeral

Despite being out of the blast radius, Metal Sonic was still hit with the shockwave that was generated from the explosion.

The force of the blast caused Metal's thruster to shutdown and he began to rapidly drop down to the ground below.

Metal turned to face the ground in mid air. His processors quickly coming up with options to save himself.

Metal looked around for something to help break his fall. His vision focused on a tree that had remained intact after the blast. Reaching one arm out he grabbed a branch, which helped slow his fall. However at the speed he was falling, the arm that grabbed onto the branch was hit with the whiplash of the fall, causing it to be dislocated at the shoulder.

As a result, Metal lost his grip on the branch and fell to the ground. But the impact was much softer thanks to the branch slowing his fall.

He got up and observed his arm, lifting it with his working arm before letting it go. Once he did that the arm fell limply to the side. Analyzing the injury, he concluded that while the arm was non functional at the moment, the injury was minor and the doctor would repair him once he got back to base.

He then observed the forest and the damage done. He was annoyed over Eggman's decision of using an unstable energy source for a robot. The logical thing to do was to use the energy to power one of his bases, or if you were going to use it for a robot, analyze it first.

He heard a beep in his radio, signaling that Eggman was trying to contact him.

"This is Metal Sonic."

"Metal Sonic, are you alright?" Eggman's voice said. "I saw the explosion, what happened?"

"The energy source of the robot became unstable." Metal explained. "The robot exploded and destroyed a large area as a result."

"I see." Eggman said. "Could you recover the remains of the Tortoise? I could improve on the design for future use."

"Affirmative." Metal said before staring at his broken arm. "I will need repairs as well for my arm has broken."

"What, how did it get broken?"

"When I was falling after the blast, I grabbed onto a branch and the speed I was falling, it was dislocated at the shoulder." Metal explained. "It was the best option for reducing any other damage I might have sustained."

"Hmph." Eggman said over the radio. "Just retrieve the Tortoise and return to base."

"Affirmative."

Metal then hung up the radio and began to scan for a signal for the Tortoise. Even the faintest signal could lead him to where it blew up.

He finally managed to find a signal, a weak one, but it was traceable.

Metal began to walk in the direction in of the signal. As he did so, he wondered what happened to his organic counterpart. From the calculated blast radius and the time in between when the energy became unstable and when the explosion happened, Sonic had an exactly 15% chance of escaping.

Of course, Metal did not have time to analyze where Sonic was before the explosion since he was knocked out of the sky. So he would have to search for Sonic on the ground.

As he followed the signal, he tried to scan for Sonic's vital signs, but none had come up.

He could only come up with two conclusions. Either Sonic had managed to outrun the explosion, or he had died.

He was going to get one of the answers soon.

He finally came across the origin of the signal, as well as two sights.

The first were the remains of the Tortoise, the explosion had ripped apart the upper half of the robot, leaving only the lower torso and some of the cylinders that contained some of the energy. Analyzing it, Metal concluded that it was salvageable.

The other sight, was downright surprising, and for a moment, Metal couldn't process that it actually happened.

Laying on the ground, his eyes closed, and not breathing, was Sonic The Hedgehog.

Metal stared at the body of Sonic a few moments, scanning him exactly 5 times just to make sure he was dead. When his scans confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that this was Sonic, Metal's next clock cycle felt one emotion.

Shock.

He was shocked that his organic counterpart was finally dead. After all the encounters with the doctor, all the battles with him, and all the times he had been sent to fight Sonic, Sonic was finally dead.

But what shocked Metal was not the fact that he was dead, but the way he died.

Metal's memory banks went back to when Sonic was running off with the Tortoise's body. He recalled how Sonic seamed to run franticly around the city until he eventually got out of it and into this forest with only 10 seconds left before it blew up.

Putting this all together, combined with seeing Sonic's body, Metal realized what Sonic had done.

He had sacrificed himself to prevent the robot from exploding in the city, which would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds.

That was the information Metal almost could not process. His enemy had run off with a robot that was about to blow up, despite knowing that he could not escape the blast with the little time he had.

Metal took a step back for a moment, he had to focus on the objective. What Sonic had done was not important to it.

Then he began to hear a sound.

"Sonic, Sonic are you there?"

Metal scanned the area, searching for the source of the voice. Finally he found a small device with a button on it.

"Sonic, are you alright? I saw the explosion from here, did you escape?"

Metal picked up the device and stared at it for a while. He could identify the voice as Tails, clearly unaware of Sonic's fate right now.

"Please Sonic." he heard Tails plead. "Say something."

Metal continued to stare as Tails began to plead for Sonic to talk to him.

He then heard Tails slowly begin to cry. "Please Sonic, you can't be dead."

As Tails cried over the communicator, all Metal did was stare at the device as he listened. Normally he would crush the device, ultimately cutting Tails off and ensuring the device would never be used again.

But as he listened to Tails crying, Metal began to feel an emotion. An emotion he had never felt before.

Pity.

He felt pity for Tails, he was slowly coming to the realization his friend, and brother figure was dead. From the interactions Metal had witnessed, it was clear that they both cared for each other, and they seamed almost determined not to let anything bad happen to the other.

But now, the moment either one feared might happened had finally come.

"No." Tails managed to say in between crying over the communicator. "It can't be."

Metal had heard enough, he pressed the button and cut the connection, dropping the device on the ground.

He approached the remains of the Tortoise and wrapped his functioning arm around it.

He then activated his radio again. "I have the Tortoise, I will return to base."

"Excellent, is there anything else?" Eggman's asked.

Metal looked at the body of Sonic, considering for a moment whether he should tell Eggman about Sonic's fate.

Metal then looked to the sky and noticed some helicopters approaching. He had to leave soon and Eggman might find out about Sonic later.

"Metal, are you there?"

"Sonic The Hedgehog is dead." Metal finally responded.

"What?" Eggman asked in a surprised tone. "What did you say?"

"I said Sonic the Hedgehog is dead." Metal said.

For a few moments Eggman was silent, almost as if he was trying to procees what Metal had said.

Finally he spoke. "Metal, return to base."

"Affirmative."

Metal turned off the radio and flew away from the blast area with the Tortoise in his arm.

* * *

Hours later, Metal finally landed at Eggman's base and entered it with the robots remains.

Metal stared at the entrance for a moment, sending a request to open the door. After a few seconds the doors opened and Metal entered.

He traveled through the hallway until he entered the room where Eggman was. His back was facing towards Metal and he was quiet.

Eggman then turned his head towards Metal. "Could you carry any other part other then the body?"

"Negative, the bottom half of the robot was the only intact part I could carry."

Metal then tossed the remains of the robot on the floor in front of him.

"Is there anything else you must know?"

"About what you said about Sonic." Eggman said turning to him. "Is it true?"

"Positive, I scanned him multiple times just to make sure it was him."

"Well maybe he was just playing dead. That rodent has tricked me before."

"I detected no vital..."

"I command you not to say another word." Eggman said stopping him before picking up a remote. "We'll have to see if you're telling the truth. If you lied, you'll have to repair that arm yourself."

Metal stared at his arm. It was true that he could repair himself on his own, but it would take a lot longer, hours maybe. Even if he managed to do it, it wouldn't be perfect.

Eggman then pressed the remote and a television screen turned on.

The screen showed a newscaster, her eyes were clearly tearing up, but she was trying to keep her face from showing any sadness from the news.

"...If you're just joining us, the worlds most well known hero, Sonic The Hedgehog, has died. Witnesses say that he was carrying a robot was emitting orange smoke. About a minute later an explosion was seen just 5 miles outside Cental City. We can all assume that Sonic sacrificed his life to prevent the robot from exploding in a populated area..."

For a moment, Eggman just stared at the screen. Since he was facing away from him, Metal wondered what expression Eggman had. He could only assume it was both shock and surprise.

After about a minute, Eggman finally spoke.

"He...He's Dead." he said, almost as if couldn't believe he was saying the words.

"Sonic The Hedgehog is dead." This time he sounded more gleeful.

Eggman then began to laugh in delight. "I can't believe it's finally happened."

"Are you alright doctor?" Metal asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Oh, I'm in a great mood." Eggman said with glee. "You've definitely earned that repair job Metal. With Sonic gone, I've finally proven that you're better then him."

Metal through about the moment where Sonic running away from him with with the Tortoise's body. Was he really better then him if Sonic choose to gave his life to save others?

"Come along Metal." Eggman said walking away. "Let's get that arm repaired."

As he followed Eggman out of the room, Metal stared back at the television. The newscaster was now describing funeral plans for Sonic.

Metal could not understand himself right now. He should just be as glad as Eggman with Sonic finally dead. Sonic perished in the explosion, while Metal only got a broken arm that could be easily repaired.

So why did he feel sorry for the people mourning Sonic?

"Metal, do you want that arm repaired or not?" Eggman then cried out.

Metal walked out of the room and went to get his arm repaired.

* * *

Two days later, Eggman landed his Eggmobile outside of a church, with Metal landing right beside him.

Eggman had decided to go to Sonic's funeral. Metal could only assume it was to taunt him. Though from what he witnessed from funerals he'd seen, that would be rather disrespectful.

Rather then his usual outfit, Eggman was wearing a black suit and tie. He adjusted it when he got out of the vehicle.

"Am I wearing this right?" Eggman asked Metal.

Metal stared at him for a moment. "Positive. Taking in account you're stature, the way you are wearing the suit is optimal."

"Hmph." Eggman said. "I never really wear this thing often, so I just wanted your opinion."

The two of them then began to walk towards the building. As they did so, Metal stared at the building.

The Church was made of stone, with a steeple at the far end of the building. The stone looked a bit worn and old, indicating that it was built a long time ago.

At the door, a woman stood outside, as if she was guarding it. As they walked up the steps, the woman noticed them.

"Hold it right there." She said.

Metal and Eggman stopped just as they arrived at the door and turned and faced the woman.

"Dr. Eggman, what are you doing here?" The woman asked crossing her arms.

"Why, attending Sonic's funeral." Eggman said casually. "I should be able to mourn the death of my enemy after all."

"Do you have any remotes or devices that would bring an army of your robots here?" The woman asked as she threw a glare at Metal Sonic.

"Of course not. That would be disrespectful."

For a few seconds the woman glared at Eggman and Metal Sonic.

Finally she sighed and opened the door. "You can go in Eggman, but you need to leave him outside."

She pointed at Metal Sonic, who simply stood there.

"Why not?" Eggman asked.

"I feel the presence of this robot at the funeral would be disrespectful to Sonic's memory."

Eggman sighed and turned to Metal Sonic. "Metal Sonic, stay outside until it's time for us to leave."

"Affirmative." Metal replied.

Eggman then entered the church, leaving Metal alone with the woman, who continued to glare at him.

"I will go now." Metal Sonic said turning away from the woman.

"Please do." The woman said.

Metal went down the stairs. Despite facing away from her, he felt like the woman was glaring at him until he left her view.

Metal then stared at the church again. Eggman had told Metal not to go inside the church, but he didn't say anything about not being allowed in the area.

Metal figured that if he was not allowed to witness Sonic's funeral inside, he would need to view it from the outside.

First he would need a window to view it from.

Metal began to wander around the area of the church, trying to look for a window to watch from. He needed a view that would give an optimal angle of the coffin Sonic was in and the audience without any clear obstructions.

He eventually found one on the right side of the building and peeked through it.

Inside, he saw the coffin that contained Sonic body. The lid was open, but from the angle he was staring at, he couldn't see Sonic himself. Behind the coffin, was a man, presumably a priest, talking from a podium.

Metal turned to the audience to see who was there. He saw tons of people sitting in the audience. Most of them he didn't recognize, however he did see Sonic's friends in the front row.

Knuckles was sitting down, his head low in sadness. Amy Rose was trying her best not to cry over what had happened. Cream was sitting down with her mother Vanilla. Cream was looking at her mother as if she was wanted to ask her something. Shadow was sitting with Rouge and while his face didn't show much emotion, it was obvious he was trying not to cry. Rouge was dabbing a handkerchief on her eyes to clear the tears from her eyes.

He tried to search for Tails in the audience before he finally found him.

He was sitting far from his friends. His expression seamed to be almost hollow and blank, and he was looking down at the floor. From what Metal saw of Tails now and what he heard two days ago, it was obvious Sonic's death had hit him the hardest.

Metal focused on Tails for a bit. From analyzing Tails current behavior, he came to the conclusion that Tails would need tons of emotional support if he wanted to overcome his grief.

"...Sonic's friend, Amy Rose will now give a eulogy on him." He heard the priest say.

Metal turned back to the audience and saw Amy Rose rise up getting out a piece of paper. Knuckles put a hand on Amy's arm and she stared at him for a moment before nodding and going to the podium.

She stared at the piece of paper for a moment, breathing in before she finally spoke.

"Now some of you might know that I kind of had a crush on Sonic." She began.

There were a few small chuckles that resulted from that.

"He might not have shared that same affection for me, but he still considered me a friend." She continued. "And I'm more then happy for that."

"There's no doubt that he's touched a lot of people for his actions. He's saved the world, helped others in need, and in some cases, he helped others become better people."

Metal noticed Shadow give a slight smile when Amy said that.

"Now, we might not have him here anymore, but we should always remember what he did for us in his life. We should also remember that he went out doing what he loved."

Amy gave a sad smile. "He saved people, and we should all thank him for that."

"So, one more time, thanks Sonic."

There was a small applause when Amy finished her eulogy.

Amy picked up the paper with the speech and began to turn towards the window Metal was peeking through.

Acting quickly, Metal hid from sight and listened to Amy's footsteps as she went back to where she sat.

Metal then peeked through the window again and saw that the priest was in front of the podium again and was making another speech. This one being about how Sonic will hopefully be in a better place.

After awhile, he finally finished speaking and a person approached the coffin and closed the lid.

Soon after, a few more people approached the coffin, picked it up, and carried it through the gap between the pews.

Everyone then got up and followed them slowly. All except for Tails, who remained seated.

After about a minute, Metal saw Amy come back and approach Tails.

"Tails, they're moving Sonic." she said, clearly trying her best to word it as best as possible. "Are you coming?"

Tails stared at Amy for a moment, his eyes clearly filled with sadness.

"Yes." Tails finally said in a quiet voice.

"Come on." Amy said putting her arm around Tails. "It's not easy for any of us either you know."

Metal watched as Amy and Tails walked towards the exit.

Metal moved away from the window and when he was near the front of the church, he hid behind a tree to continue watching the scene that was happening.

He could see Sonic's coffin being put inside of a black car, with everyone from the funeral watching. He could even see Eggman standing there with them, with Amy glaring at him while Tails simply just stared blankly in the distance.

"I know your planning something Eggman." Amy said to Eggman. "With Sonic gone, this is a perfect opportunity to take over the world."

"Oh I won't be doing anything like that for quite a while." Eggman said with an innocent smile. "I understand you've lost a friend, you and your friends need time to recover."

Amy continued to glare at him. "Well if you ever do attack, remember that even without Sonic, we will stop you."

Though Metal could see that Amy, while she was handling Sonic's loss slightly better, she was still trying to hold back tears.

Metal could have just walked up to Eggman and simply just used is appearance to taunt Amy and Tails that he was still here while Sonic was in a coffin, he choose not to.

Metal shook his head, he couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. He didn't crush Sonic's communication device when he heard Tails, he didn't feel the same joy as Eggman when he learned Sonic died, and he felt sorry for Sonic's friends and the guests at the funeral.

Why was he feeling pity for those mourning Sonic's death?

"Metal, are you there?" Eggman's voice said over his radio.

Eggman's voice snapped him back to reality. "Affirmative." He responded. "What is it?"

"I believe it's time for us to go." Eggman said. "Meet with me back at my Eggmobile."

"Affirmative." Metal then disconnected from the call and began walking in the direction of where the Eggmobile was.

About halfway there, he stopped and stared at the crowd watching the car that held Sonic's coffin drive away. As Metal began to walk away again, he could tell that while no one spoke it, everyone in the crowd were all wondering the same thing.

Who was going to replace Sonic as the hero?


	3. The Visit

A week after the funeral, the activity at Eggman's base was far from what it normally was.

When Eggman arrived back at base, he began to work on something that he didn't even tell Metal Sonic about. When Metal asked when he ran into him during the week all he responded was this.

"For now, this is a secret only to me. I will tell you some of it when I set the plan in motion."

"And what about Sonic's friends emotional state?" Metal had asked. "Are you certain that now is the time for planning when they are in a state of grief?"

"Bah, even when they though Sonic was dead, they still fought. It'll probably be no different here."

On the other hand, Metal had tried to find a reason to celebrate Sonic's death throughout the week. His organic copy was dead, he was now the superior Sonic. He should be rejoicing with Eggman.

But every time he thought about Sonic, he kept going back to that moment where Sonic ran away with the Tortoise's body.

That moment Sonic decided to sacrifice himself to save others.

He had also watched various news reports over how others reacted to Sonic's death. In one broadcast, they had announced to build a statue of Sonic in his honor. In another, G.U.N had held a press conference, in which the commander stated he had authorized Team Dark, Shadow's team, to go after Eggman if he striked. He had seen reports similar to that, with others saying people are being trained to fight Eggman's robots alongside Sonic's friends.

Most of them however, were mourning Sonic.

Metal stared down at the floor. For years, Metal had seen himself as the superior version of Sonic. He was faster and stronger then him in any way, able to calculate situations quickly and come up with a strategy. He had tried to kill him multiple times to prove that to him.

But now, after what Sonic did, how could Metal be considered superior if he wasn't willing to give his life to save others?

Metal knew Eggman was planning something big. With the world vulnerable at the moment because of Sonic's death, it was something Eggman would logically do.

From the time passed since the funeral, a possible plan Eggman might come up with, and taking into the account the emotional state of people who might be able to stop him at the moment, Metal had come up with multiple scenarios that involved them combating whatever Eggman had planned.

All of them ended with Eggman winning.

All except for one. one that under normal circumstances, Metal would never consider.

But with Sonic's sacrifice almost constantly going through his head, he kept thinking about that scenario.

And he was considering taking that scenario instead of the others.

"Metal, get over here right now." Eggman's voice suddenly said over the P/A.

Metal snapped out of his thoughts and immediately went to where Eggman was. Which took about 5 seconds.

He found Eggman observing a series of blueprints.

"I am here doctor." Metal said. "What do you need me for?"

Eggman turned towards him. "I want you to get the chaos emeralds. I'll need them for my plan."

Metal tilted his head. "I've asked this before, but is it really the best time to strike when everyone is grieving for Sonic?"

Eggman glared at Metal. "Haven't I answered that already, and when did you start caring about that?"

Metal looked down. Ever since he heard Tails desperately crying for Sonic to be alive, he began to think of others feelings towards, Sonic. He had seen how Sonic treated others, but never had he considered how others felt about him. To him, that was just meaningless information.

But after that moment, and observing the audience at Sonic's funeral, he began to take that into consideration. A factor that was influencing a decision Metal was about to make. But for now, he could not clue Eggman in on it.

"I did not start caring about that factor." Metal finally replied. "I was just stating a thought of mine."

"That isn't important right now." Eggman said waving his hand. "Now you'll do as I ordered."

Metal nodded. "Affirmative, the chaos emeralds will be retrieved. Are there any other objectives?"

Eggman shook his head. "No, now go and do your mission."

"Affirmative."

Metal left the room and exited the base before he took flight with his thruster. As he flew, data began to appear in front of him. The location of the nearest chaos emerald and the direction it was in. Words also appeared in front of him.

 _Objective: Secure Chaos Emeralds._

After traveling for about a minute, Metal changed his course away from the emerald.

He had no intention of collecting the chaos emeralds for Eggman. He was instead going to someone else's place.

* * *

At his home, Tails stared at a half eaten plate of food.

He had made a small dinner for himself, knowing he most likely wasn't going to eat the whole thing.

'Well, at least I'm eating.' he thought as he continued to stare at the food.

He wanted to finish what he had on his plate, but he just didn't have the appetite for it.

Sighing, he picked up the plate and threw the rest of the food in the trash.

Tails then walked into the living room. For a moment, he stared at a photo of him and Sonic together. Walking towards it he picked it up.

Looking at the photograph, it didn't help his mood. He deeply missed Sonic. For the first two days after his death, he couldn't believe Sonic was dead. He tried to tell himself that Sonic was still alive, but the news he saw and listened too seamed to all but confirm that Sonic had died in the blast.

Since the funeral, Tails had stayed at his home. He felt that maybe he could recover from his grief by himself.

A week had passed however, and he had not gotten any better. In fact, he'd gotten worse.

Looking at the photo he felt something inside him increasing. He felt he should have done something.

Something that could have prevented Sonic's death.

His hand shaking, he put the photograph back down and shook his head. He needed to clear his head. So he picked up to the remote and turned on the television.

Unfortunately for him, the channel that was currently on had a news report on Sonic. Tails looked away from the TV but listened to what the newscaster had to say.

"...construction has begun on a statue to honor Sonic's memory. In other news, Eggman has not been sighed since his unexpected appearance at Sonic's funeral. Could the mad doctor be planning something big? If so, what is he planning, and will those who swore to protect us in the wake of Sonic's death be enough? More at this after..."

Tails couldn't stand to listen to it anymore and turned off the television. He also threw the remote in grief and frustration.

Tails took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down as tears welled up in his eyes.

'Sonic's gone.' he tried to tell himself. 'You can't bring him back.'

But even despite this, he felt his guilt eating away inside of him.

Deciding to go to bed, he went to his bedroom, ignoring the sound of the phone ringing.

When he reached the door to his bedroom, the phone stopped ringing and the caller leaved a message. Tails stopped to listen to it

"Hi Tails, it's Amy. I haven't seen you since the funeral, is everything alright? I know Sonic's death hasn't been easy for any of us, I'm still trying to recover from it myself, but you seam to have cut yourself off from us. If you want, me and Knuckles could visit you and maybe we can help. Just, call us."

Tails paused for a moment, taking Amy's message into consideration.

He then closed the door and lied down in his bed.

"You can get through this." he said to himself as he went to sleep, but even the words came out a bit shaky.

* * *

Tails dreamed of the forest that the blast occurred in. All around him were burnt out trees, charred grass and smoke was clouding the sky. Things Tails had seen on the news despite never visiting the site himself.

Tails began to walk through the forest, observing it's burnt out remains. The only sounds being the footsteps he made on the grass.

For awhile he walked alone, trying to find the center of the blast. He then began to hear a familiar voice.

"Tails..."

He stopped and he began to look around. "Sonic?" he asked looking around.

"Tails, are you there?"

Tails finally looked in the direction the voice was coming from.

"Stay where you are, I'm coming." Tails said, desperate to save Sonic.

Tails began to run towards the voice. He hoped he could save Sonic from whatever happened.

He dodged the branches and rocks, trying to reach where Sonic was as quickly as possible. He even tripped over something at one point, but he quickly got back up, determined to save him.

Eventually he found him in a clearing, facing away from Tails, and still calling his name.

"Just, don't move." Tails said, trying his best to reassure his friend.

However just as he ran out of the woods and into the area of the clearing, he felt his foot sink into the ground. Looking down, he saw that the ground was now a swampy bog except for a small island where Sonic was standing.

Trying not to be deterred by this, he moved as quickly as he could. As he progressed he felt the bog grow deeper, so he had to rely on branches to stay afloat and not let his head become submerged.

He managed to get through the sudden swam eventually and ran over to Sonic.

"Sonic, are you alright?" he asked.

Sonic began to slowly turn around. "Tails..."

"It's alright Sonic, I'm here." Tails said, trying to reassure his friend.

Sonic then faced Tails. "Why, didn't you warn me on what happens if the energy source became unstable?"

Tails stepped back. "Sonic, I'm sorry, I didn't know until the last..."

"Too…Late." Sonic replied.

Suddenly, the Tortoise appeared out of nowhere right next to Sonic.

"NO!" Tails screamed just as it blew up and took the two with it.

* * *

Tails woke with a start in his bed.

He looked around, thinking about that dream. He had similar nightmares to the one he just had since the funeral. Which was fueling his guilt over what happened to Sonic.

He felt like she should have warned Sonic sooner, maybe then he would still be alive.

He was about to go back to sleep when he saw something that made him freeze.

Standing at the end of his bed, obscured in shadow and only illuminated by the red light of the optics, was Metal Sonic.

He stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight that was coming through the window in Tails's room.

"Hello Tails." Metal said.

For awhile, Tails didn't speak. Almost shocked and terrified at Metal's sudden prescience.

Finally, he said something. "How did you get in here?"

"The front door using the key under your doormat." Metal answered. "A very inconvenient hiding place for a key in my opinion."

Tails glared at him. "Well it works for me."

"Negative. When I found your door locked, there was a 90 percent chance that the key there might be under the mat. I was correct in that guess."

Tails shook his head while continuing to stare at him. "What are you even doing here? Are you here to kill me?"

Metal stared at Tails for a moment before responded. "I saw Sonic when he died."

"Obviously, you fought him with that robot of Eggmans."

"True, but I was following the doctors orders. I meant I saw Sonic when he decided to sacrifice himself."

Tails remained silent, continuing to stare at Metal.

"I saw him run off with The Tortoise's body before it blew up. I followed him as he got it out of the city, and I saw his body in the aftermath of the explosion."

"Were you doing that just to make sure he would die?" Tails asked.

"Negative, I was just observing what he was doing. What I witnessed and observing the aftermath, it changed me."

Tails was confused by that statement. "What do you mean by that?"

Metal stared at Tails. "It got me to think of Sonic in a different way. The way most people see him rather then the way I see him."

Tails was silent for a moment, thinking of what Metal was saying.

Metal was about to continue when Tails glared angrily at him and interrupted him.

"Get out." He said.

Metal just stared at him for a moment.

Tails continued. "I don't believe a word you said. Eggman probably sent you to see if I wasn't a threat to his plan. Now get out."

Metal remained in place. He could see Tails was trying to put up a brave face, but his grief was breaking through

"GET OUT!" Tails yelled with tears in his eyes.

Metal finally decided to leave, making sure to close the door behind him.

Tails stared at where Metal was for a few minutes, almost as if he was expecting Metal to go back in.

He didn't, as he head footsteps going away from the door, and he began to drift back to sleep.

* * *

Outside, Metal put the key back where it originally was, and walked away from Tail's house, thinking about his encounter with Tails.

He knew that Tails would not trust him right off the bat. Understandable considering his own past with Sonic.

It was clear that he would need to find an optimal situation that would help gain Tails's trust. Something that involved Tails in danger and him coming to his rescue.

To do that, he would need to monitor Tails, and wait for that opportunity.

He then heard his radio beep and he answered it.

"Metal, are you there?" Eggman's voice came through.

"Affirmative."

"You seam to have gone off-course from where the emerald is. Do you have an explanation for this?"

Metal paused for a moment, he needed to make a convincing lie for Eggman so he wouldn't grow suspicious of his actions.

"I believe an emerald might come through a nearby town." Metal responded. "As such, I will remain in the area until the emerald has arrived."

Eggman was silent after Metal said that. For a moment, Metal thought Eggman did not buy the lie.

Finally, he spoke. "If you say so, it could be a good opportunity to show that I am free to strike anywhere now that Sonic is gone."

Metal stared at the ground. "Yes, that is a viable strategy. Until then I will engage radio silence until I have the emerald."

Eggman sounded baffled. "Radio silence? Why would you even do that?"

"There is a chance that our communications might be intercepted." Metal said, making a convincing lie to cover his real reasoning for the radio silence.

Eggman was once again silent, thinking about what Metal had said.

Finally there was a sigh. "Fine, we'll go radio silent, but for one week. If you haven't gotten the emerald and moved on in that time frame, I will contact you and ask what is really going on. Understand?"

"Understood. Metal Sonic, out."

Metal cut the connection and stared back at Tails's house.

He would have to find a hiding spot so he could spy on Tails without risk of being seen.

Scanning the area, he spotted a tree with a few bushes that were close to it. Analyzing it, he concluded that it would be the perfect place to observe Tails's home.

As he did so, the words appeared in front of him again.

 _Objective: Secure Chaos Emeralds._

Metal shook his head. He did not need a reminder of what he wasn't going to do and he began to delete the command from his memory.

He then replaced it with one of his own. The first half of this command was what Sonic would have done.

 _Objective: Keep Tails Safe and Gain His Trust._


	4. Moving In

For the next 2 days, Metal simply observed Tails' home. Using the hiding spot he had spotted, he conducted what humans had called a stakeout.

During those two days, Tails never seamed to go outside. Metal had witnessed some flashes of light coming from what he assumed was Tails' workshop. From what Metal had seen of Tails, he was most likely trying to deal with his grief in his own way. There were times that Metal glimpsed Tails through a window, and Metal could see it whatever Tails was doing was not working.

Metal had his own problems to deal with though. While he did not need any food or drink to keep him alive, he still needed to conserve his battery. He worked around this by going into sleep mode at night, waiting until morning came before turning back on.

The 2 days were rather uneventful, to the point where Metal wondered if Tails was ever going to leave his house.

However at around noon, at 11:36 am specifically, Metal witnessed Tails leave the house. Metal began to monitor Tails' movements closely, wondering what Tails would do.

He saw Tails going in the direction away from his hiding spot. After cross-referencing the direction he's going with some other information, he concluded that Tails was going to a nearby town Metal had spotted when flying over to Tails's house.

Once Tails was far enough away, he activated his thruster. He had decided that he would follow Tails to the town and hopefully, a situation might happen that would involve him saving Tails.

He followed him above the tree's, following Tails' signature until he entered town.

From here, Metal decided to take to the roofs to continue following Tails. Determining that he would likely get less attention if he traveled the roofs then normally flying in the air.

Metal followed Tails through the town, jumping across roofs as he traveled. At times he would need to use his thruster to jump across larger gaps and move to rooftops that were across the streets.

Metal had noticed that some people heard the sound of his thruster, but Metal was able to quickly move out of sight before they caught a glimpse of him. He lost sight of Tails a few times, but managed to find him again pretty quickly.

Eventually, Tails entered a store and Metal observed it from the roof. The sign of the store was _Park General Store._ Metal analyzed the stuff people had brought out, and concluded that Tails must have left his home to get food.

He watched the store for awhile, watching the people enter, exit and walk by the building, observing their actions.

He saw a man accidentally bumping into a couple, a mother leaving the store with a child who was asking for something from the bag, and a couple arguing about something.

As Metal watched, he wondered if these were the kind of people Sonic saved at a regular basis. These were the same kind that Metal once threatened, and he wondered if they would trust him if he ever decided to save them.

Metal focused back on the general store, where he saw some of Tails through the window. He looked like he was in front of a counter talking to someone.

Metal couldn't tell what the conversation was, but judging from Tails' reaction, it was most likely about Sonic. Tails seamed to be demanding something from the person. Eventually, the person gave him a brown bag and Tails left.

He began to walk back home and Metal went back to following him. For awhile, Tails followed a similar path to when he was going to the store until he came across a crowded street that had tons of cars going across.

For awhile, Tails simply stood, waiting for the Don't Walk sign to change. Eventually, Tails sighed and decided to take another route. Metal calculated the route change and continued to follow him from the roofs.

Tails eventually decided to take a shortcut through an alleyway, and Metal jumped from the roof across. Just before he landed on the adjacent rooftop he heard voices.

"Well, look who wandered in here?"

Metal stopped and began to track where the voice came from, which was the alleyway that was next the roof Metal was on. Metal ran over and watched the scene from above.

He saw Tails cornered by three people who were wearing black beanie caps. One of them, who Metal guessed was the leader, was holding a baseball bat.

"I was just passing through." Tails said.

"Well you picked the wrong alley to pass through." The leader said pointing the baseball bat at Tails.

"Wait, isn't this Sonic's sidekick?" One of the thugs asked the leader.

"Hey that's right. Where's your friend by the way?" The leader taunted Tails.

Tails simply glared at him, clearly trying to hold back both anger and tears.

"Oh right we forgot, he's dead."

The leader and the others laughed.

Metal clenched his hands on the ledge he was observing from. What gave those people the right to mock Tails in light of the death of Sonic.

"I...I'm warning you." Tails said trying to keep his composure. "I know how to defend myself."

One of the thugs simply replied by kicking Tails, knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop the bag of groceries he was holding.

The thugs simply laughed at him. Watching this, Metal came to the conclusion that he had to intervene, or else Tails would be gravely injured or worse.

He leaped down from the ledge, just out of view from the thugs, who continued to taunt Tails.

"Not so tough without your friend aren't ya." One taunted as Tails tried to get up.

"You can barely fight for yourself." Another said.

"What do you think, should I hit him again?" The leader asked.

The two others cheered in response.

"Alright." he said raising the bat towards Tails again.

"Leave him alone."

Everyone then stopped and turned in the direction of the voice.

Metal Sonic was standing at the entry of the alleyway, glaring at the thugs.

The leader smiled. "Well look who it is, the dead hero's robotic counterpart. Did you come to see us beat up the sidekick?"

"No." Metal said continuing to glare. "I came to protect him. Leave now or I will use force."

The thugs stared at him for a moment, they then began to laugh again.

"You, protecting him?" One of the thugs said between his laughs. "Sorry, but from what we've seen, you're only purpose seams to be to work for Eggman."

Metal said nothing, continuing to glare at him.

"Hit him again."

The leader turned back to Tails and raised the bat at him.

"I told you to leave him alone." Metal said. "This is my final warning. Leave or I will use force."

The leader turned in anger to Metal and walked towards him.

"You want to get hit?" The leader asked pointing the bat at Metal. "Because we can shut you up pretty easily."

Metal was silent.

The leader sighed and shook his head. "Suit yourself."

The leader swung the bat and it hit the side of Metal's head, knocking him down.

Metal got up and glared at him.

"That, was a mistake." He said.

The leader ignored this and raised the bat upwards for another swing. Just as he swung it down, the bat suddenly stopped.

The leader looked at the bat in surprise, and saw that Metal had stopped it with his hand. He clenched his fist around the bat and it snapped in half.

"What the?" The leader said in surprise before Metal punched him in the face, causing him to stumble back.

"Boss, you alright?" One of the thugs asked.

Clenching his nose, the leader pointed at Metal. "Get him."

The two turned towards Metal and after a moment, charged at him.

One thug came in swinging his fists at Metal, who effortlessly dodged them. Once he found an opening, Metal punched him in the stomach, causing him to double over. Metal then kicked the thugs leg, it must have broken something as the thug collapsed, screaming in pain.

The other thug tried to tackle him, but Metal detected him and managed to step out of the way just as he leaped towards him. Metal activated his thruster and flew towards the thug, grabbing the thug's head just as he was getting up.

He slammed the thugs head against the wall, which caused a groan of pain from him. Metal slammed his head against the wall again, not satisfied with that response. The thug slumped against the wall unconscious.

Metal heard an angry cry, he turned and saw the leader charging at him with one half of the broken baseball bat, his nose bleeding. Metal dodged the swing, grabbed the arm that was holding the broken bat, and slammed him against the wall, pinning him with his other arm.

Metal glared at the leader, who was terrified right now.

"No, please, don't kill me." The leader screamed.

"I will not kill you." Metal said, gripping the arm that was holding the broken bat tightly. "Instead, I will only give you this warning."

He pointed to Tails. "If you threaten him or anyone else again, I will look for you, and what I did to you and the two others won't be the worst of it."

Despite fact that, from the leaders perspective, Metal wasn't showing emotion thanks to his robotic face. It was clear his voice was filled with anger.

Metal leaned in closer to the leaders face. "Do you understand?"

At first, the leader was too terrified to respond. The only sound coming from him being "I...I..."

Metal was clearly unsatisfied with that answer and began to tighten his grip on his arm until the sound a bone breaking was heard.

The leader screamed in pain, dropping the broken bat. "OKAY, OKAY. I WON'T THREATEN HIM OR ANYONE ELSE!" he yelled.

Metal let go of the arm, which fell limply, and backed away from the leader.

The leader slowly got up and began to limp away. The thug that Metal had slammed against the wall had woken up and was carrying the one with the broken leg.

Metal watched as they left, and once he was sure they were gone, he turned to Tails, who was getting back up.

"Are you alright?" Metal asked approaching Tails.

Tails stared at him for a moment, not knowing what to say to his enemy saving him.

"I can take care of myself." Tails finally said looking away from him.

"Negative, you were outnumbered, and in your current emotional state, it was likely they would win." Metal responded.

Tails glared at Metal. "Were you following me?"

"Affirmative, my objective is to keep you safe."

"Who gave you that order?" Tails asked. "I highly doubt Eggman would even tell you that."

"Correct, Eggman did not give me that order. I gave that order to myself."

Tails stared at him before shaking his head. "I don't believe that for a minute."

He walked past Metal and back to the bag of groceries, picking up some of what fell out of the bag.

He was about to pick the bag up when he heard Metal speak.

"Let me get that for you."

Tails turned and saw Metal walking up to him.

"I told you, I don't need help. Especially from you." Tails said sternly.

Metal ignored him and picked up the bag. He then stared at Tails, as if waiting for him to tell him what to do.

Tails sighed. "Fine, you can carry the bags home, but I'll be watching you."

Metal nodded. "Understood."

They then continued through the alley to Tails' home. With Tails keeping an eye on Metal all the way through.

* * *

Tails unlocked the door with the key under the mat. Which Metal still thought was a bad hiding place for a key.

Tails entered the home and Metal followed him into the kitchen, where Tails pointed to the counter.

"Put the bag here." He said all the while glaring at Metal as if he was going to do something wrong.

Metal did so and then stared at Tails.

"You can go now." Tails said pointing to the door.

Metal stared at the door for a moment before turning back to Tails.

"Why would I do that?" Metal asked.

"I don't want you around here." Tails said. "Just go back to Eggman, or continue to do whatever Eggman ordered you to do."

Metal simply just stood there. "I'm afraid I can not do that."

"Why?" Tails spat in frustration and anger.

"I do not have enough energy to make the journey back to Eggman's base, or to continue what Eggman had previously ordered me to do before I changed that."

Tails glared at him, annoyed that the robot copy of his friend seamed insistent on staying.

He finally sighed. "Fine, you can say." he said, clearly not wanting to say those words. "But I'm gonna set some rules for you that I want you to follow."

Metal tilted his head. "And what might those be?" he asked.

"One, you are not allowed in my room or workshop." Tails started. "Two, you can watch TV, but I won't allow you to watch anything that's playing news, and if I want to watch the TV, you'll give it to me."

"Three, if I have any of my friends over, you will stay hidden and not make a sound. Finally, If you break any of those rules, I won't hesitate to reduce you to scrap and return you to Eggman."

Tails leaned in close to Metal. "Do you understand?" he asked in a dangerous tone.

Metal processed the information for a moment before replying. "Affirmative."

"Good." Tails said. "Now I'm going to go to my workshop. Remember what I said."

Tails left and went through a door that Metal presumed lead to the workshop before he heard Tails lock it for extra security. Leaving Metal alone.

Metal stared at the bag of groceries. Tails had forgotten to unpack the groceries before he explained the rules to Metal.

Metal could tell that Tails was not going to trust him anytime soon. That was understantable, he probably would not believe that Metal had turned against Eggman for good. He needed to make steps that would help get Tails to trust him.

He figured that doing some chores around the house would be a good place to start.

Metal approached the bag and began to take the food out of it. Scanning the food to figure out which goes where.

Metal knew where to put things like the milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. But he did have trouble putting some of the groceries in their respective places, causing him to check Tails' cabinets to see where they were usually put.

Eventually, Metal had emptied the bag and put the groceries in where he thought were their proper places.

Metal looked around and saw that there was a pile of dishes and some silverware near a sink. Most of them looked like they haven't been cleaned. He decided made that his next priority.

Metal approached the sink and turned on the water, watching it flow out for a few seconds before grabbing the first plate. He found the dish soap nearby and squeezed the exact amount needed to clean the plate out of the bottle.

He then put the soap bottle aside and grabbed a sponge and scrubbed the plate down until that plate looked clean to him.

Placing it aside, he moved on to the next plate and repeated the process.

Half an hour passed and Tails exited his workshop. As he walked out, he saw Metal finishing cleaning up the remaining plates.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Metal turned to Tails. "You did not say anything about not being allowed to do any work in your home. So I am cleaning your plates."

Tails stared at him for a moment. He then sighed and just went to his room, no 'Thank you.' from him or anything. Tails just seemed to see Metal as an unwanted guest for now.

Alone, Metal assessed his current situation. He had managed to get Tails to let him stay at his home, so he was making progress in gaining Tails' trust. However it was obvious Tails didn't fully trust him yet.

He also thought about Eggman. There was no doubt he was tracking his movements as evidenced by his call 2 days ago. After the Metal Overlord incident, Eggman had placed a tracker inside Metal to check his movements so he wouldn't betray him again.

Because Metal had not moved on yet, there was no doubt Eggman was beginning to grow suspicious of Metal.

Metal walked out of the kitchen and stared at the door to Tails' bedroom. He calculated he only had about 5 days until Eggman called again. Knowing that information, he knew he had to get Tails to trust him more. Not fully, but to the point where Tails could remove the tracker inside of him.

It was not going to be a short process, Metal understood that, but Metal needed to do that in order to get Eggman off his back and proceed on what he intended to do.

Replace Sonic as the world's hero.


	5. Conversation

**A/N:** _I want to thank people for the amount of support this story is getting. I"m glad people are enjoying it so far._

 _Edit: Corrected the spelling on the places where seem appears. Thank you for pointing that out._

* * *

The rest of the day went just about how Metal expected it to go. Tails eventually left his room to eat, ending up eating half of what he made, went to his workshop, and eventually went to bed. Throughout all of this, he didn't say a word to Metal, just giving him a quick glare whenever he passed him.

Metal on the other hand explored the house, looking at every room, with the exception of Tails' room and workshop. Knowing the rules, he preferred not to be in pieces, or sent back in Eggman.

Now, Metal was simply sitting on the couch in the living room. Tails had not assigned him a place to sleep, so Metal simply stood in the living room. Right now, he was considering several scenarios to help gain Tails' trust.

He concluded he would need to talk to Tails. For that, he would need to get subjects to talk about. He had come up with a few of them based on some observations, but he was looking for another.

Scanning the room, he noticed an answering machine next to a phone. Coming to the conclusion that there might be valuable data there, he went there and pressed a button on it.

"You have, 3 new messages." The answering machine said over the speaker. "Would you like to play them?"

Metal paused for a moment before pressing the button to confirm.

"Playing message one."

There was a beep and Knuckles' voice came through.

"Tails, It's Knuckles. Are you doing alright? You've been absent since the funeral. I know Sonic' death hasn't been easy for us, but you seem to have isolated yourself from us. You haven't been answering our calls or anything. If you want, the rest of us can visit and maybe we can help you get through this."

The message ended with a beep.

"Playing message two."

Another beep, and a different voice came through. This one being Rouge.

"Tails honey, are you there? It's Rouge. I know losing someone that was close to you is hard, you just need to ask Shadow to know that. But we never seem to see you anymore. Maybe I can send Shadow over and you two can have a discussion and maybe help you."

There was a pause before Rouge spoke again. "We just want to help you get through this Tails."

Another beep came, signaling the end of the message.

"Playing message three."

Another beep and the final message began, this one from Amy.

"Hi Tails, it's Amy. I haven't seen you since the funeral, is everything alright? I know Sonic' death hasn't been easy for any of us, I'm still trying to recover from it myself, but you seam to have cut yourself off from us. If you want, me and Knuckles could visit you and maybe we can help. Just, call us."

One final beep and the answering machine finished playing the messages.

Metal processed the information he had heard. From the few interactions he had with Tails, he figured that he was struggling emotionally after Sonic' death, but he did not think it was this bad.

He thought back to the funeral, when he saw Tails sitting far from his friends, and how Amy had to go back and get him. Those were clearly signs that Tails was not doing well, and every one of his friends were concerned. Meanwhile, Tails was foolishly thinking he could overcome this on his own.

Metal had come to Tails to help learn to be a hero since he knew Sonic best. But now, Metal concluded to staying around to help Tails overcome his grief.

But for now, he needed to conserve his energy. He walked away from the answering machine, went into the living room, and went into sleep mode.

* * *

The next morning, Tails exited his room and went to have breakfast. On his way to the kitchen, he checked the house to see if Metal had decided to leave during the night.

Much to his dismay, he found Metal in the living room, though he didn't seam to be active at the moment. Sighing, Tails went and had breakfast.

As he ate, he suddenly heard the television turn on. Turning around, he saw that Metal had turned himself on and was now flipping through the channels to watch something, holding the remote in one hand, and using one finger on the other to press the button to change the channel.

Tails watched for a few moments as Metal finally decided on a comedy show, before he went back to his breakfast.

He eventually finished what he could and tossed the rest in the trash, leaving the plate on the counter. He figured Metal could clean it up later considering the events of yesterday

He went into the living room and stared at Metal. Who was sitting down and was simply watching the show, not laughing at it.

'Of course he's not laughing, he's a robot made by Eggman, he doesn't know humor.' Tails thought to himself.

He approached Metal and glared at him.

"I want to watch TV." He said to Metal.

Metal turned his head towards Tails and saw him glaring at him.

"You remember the rules don't you? I won't ask again."

Metal stared at him for a moment before he grabbed the remote and handed it to Tails.

Tails changed the channel to what appeared to be some sort of science show.

For awhile, the two watched the television in silence, with Metal just staring at Tails.

Finally he spoke. "May I ask you about the people that attacked you yesterday?"

Tails turned to Metal. "What?" he said.

"The ones that I saved you from." Metal specified. "Why did they attack you?"

Tails stared at him for a moment. He didn't want to give an answer to Metal, as he still suspected Eggman sent him to spy on him. But it seamed clear from his interactions from yesterday that Metal seamed insistent on Tails answering him.

He sighed. "They didn't have a reason, they're just people who decide to attack people who wander into their territory."

Metal tilted his head. "But why did they attack you? I had assumed that because you work with Sonic, they might choose to not attack you."

Tails sighed and looked away from Metal. "There are some people in the world who don't care who you are and just attack you for no reason."

"That is not what I learned from the Doctor." Metal replied. "He always had a reason when he launched his attacks."

Tails glared at Metal. "Not everyone is like Eggman when it comes to attacking someone innocent."

"But there needs to be a reason to attack someone. You can not just attack someone because you can."

"That's exactly what those people did yesterday." Tails yelled, getting frustrated by Metal. "And as I told you yesterday, I could've handled them myself. You didn't need to come in and injure them."

"Negative, my intervention was the only option."

Tails huffed. "Fine, let's say you coming to the rescue was the best solution. You still didn't have to injure and threaten them like that."

"Negative, that was to ensure they would not hurt you or anyone else. They had a chance to avoid what I did to them, but choose not to."

"You could've killed them." Tails pointed out.

"That is correct, but I did not do that because that would not be a thing Sonic would do."

"A thing Sonic wouldn't do?" Tails asked in a dangerous tone as he stood up. "I don't know if you realize this, but you're not him."

Metal processed that statement for a moment before giving an answer. "I will not deny that, I was created by the Doctor to be better then Sonic and eliminate him."

"Well Sonic is dead now." Tails said as he stormed up to Metal. "Was that not enough for Eggman? Did he send you to taunt me over how he's dead?"

"Negative, when I left the base, I split ties with Eggman and came here on my own."

"I still don't believe that explanation." Tails said as sat back on the couch and continued to watch the television.

Metal watched the program as well, while also taking an occasional glance at Tails.

Metal knew the next topic he was going to bring up was probably going to be a tough topic for Tails, and after Tails outburst at him, he didn't think that it would be good to bring it up now.

He needed to let Tails calm down on his own right now. Well, as calm as he could be in his current situation.

For the next few hours, none of them spoke to each other. Tails had left the couch to eat, making a simple sandwich that he only ate half of. Something Metal took note of. After that, Tails went to his workshop, while Metal simply continued to watch the television.

Tails eventually came out of his workshop and watched TV, changing the channel to something he wanted to watch. As he did so, Metal noticed he looked a bit calmer now, but his face still showed a bit of sadness.

Analyzing this, Metal concluded that now would be the time to start the conversation.

"Have any of your friends visited you?" Metal asked.

Tails turned in surprise to that question. "Why do you want to know that?" he asked Metal, staring at him suspiciously.

Metal shrugged. "For data purposes."

Tails eyes narrowed. "Data for who, Eggman?"

Metal shook his head. "Negative, I have..."

"Split ties with Eggman." Tails finished. "I still don't buy that."

"You are dodging the question I asked." Metal replied. "I would like you to answer it."

"Yes they have visited." Tails yelled at Metal. "They visited just before you arrived here."

"You are lying." Metal responded. "None of your friends have seen you since the funeral."

"How can you possibly know that?" Tails asked, glaring at Metal.

"I checked your answering machine messages. The three messages I heard were your friends telling they were concerned over the fact that they have not seen you since the funeral."

"Why did you even do that?" Tails asked.

"I simply did that to gather info of your current situation. You also did not say anything about not being allowed to use the answering machine."

"That doesn't mean you should have done it." Tails pointed out.

"Your friends are worried about you." Metal said. "I might not know much about grief, but I do not think isolating yourself will help..."

"WHY DO YOU CARE?!" Tails snapped. "YOU'RE A ROBOT! A ROBOT CREATED BY EGGMAN TO KILL SONIC!"

Metal stared in silence at Tails outburst.

"You didn't know Sonic personally." Tails continued. "He would want me to get through this on my own. He'd know that one day, he wouldn't be around for me and want me to be strong."

As he spoke, Metal could see tears build up in Tails' eyes.

"So I don't need my friends help right now, and I especially don't need help from you."

He then turned away and walked out of the living room. Metal heard Tails open the door to his bedroom and slam it shut.

Metal processed the recent conversation and compared it to the information he had before. It was clear to Metal that Tails was having a harder time trying to move on from Sonic' death compared to the others, but there was something in Tails' mind that was making him feel worse.

He began to recall what he heard on Sonic' radio when he found Sonic' body. From Tails' reaction, it was clear when he realized Sonic was dead that is seamed to fall into despair. Thinking further back to when Sonic decided to sacrifice himself, he recalled that Sonic' last words to Tails was saying that he was sorry before he ran off with the Tortoise's body.

He also thought back to the funeral again. Based on his behavior it was clear whatever Tails was thinking about Sonic' death was making him feel worse.

He would need to find out what was bothering Tails so he could properly comfort him and maybe help gain his trust.


	6. Bargaining

**A/N:** _Sorry for the late chapter, college work got in the way._

* * *

The next morning Tails woke up and had breakfast. After he did that, he went into the living room and stared at Metal Sonic. Who was standing perfectly still, his head low, and his optics off.

Tails thought about the events that led to Metal ending up where he lived. When Metal had first visited him that night, he simply assumed he was simply checking on Tails before going on his main objective. Then Metal saved him in the alleyway and Tails had found out he had been watching him for a couple of days after that little meeting. Now he's in his home and seems to insist on talking to Tails for reasons unknown.

Tails then thought about his decision in the alleyway. He didn't allow Metal to stay out of the kindness of his heart. Rather, he thought by having him at home, he had something to take his anger and frustrations out on.

After all, Metal was created by Eggman. Why would he care?

However, staring at him, and thinking about what Metal had done so far. He had done some work around the house, and had tried to talk to him to try and make him feel better.

Almost like he was trying to be Sonic in trying to comfort him.

'Stop that.' He thought to himself. 'He's not Sonic, he's just a robot created by Eggman to kill him. Nothing more.'

Tails clenched his fist for a moment. He never asked for Metal Sonic to be here, in his home. Especially after Sonic' death, when he was still grieving.

Tails finally let out a frustrated sigh and walked past Metal, pushing him aside as he did so. Which caused him to fall to the floor.

Tails didn't even look back when that happened. He simply sat on the couch and began to watch TV.

As he watched TV, he stared at the picture of him and Sonic together. Looking at the picture, he looked so happy, confident that his big brother would always be there for him.

"I'm trying Sonic." Tails said to himself as he stared at the photo. "I'm really trying to get through this."

But in the past few days, he really hadn't gotten any better. He still felt guilt over Sonic' death, and his nightmare's had gotten worse.

He then heard the sound of an engine turning on and turning around, he saw Metal getting up from off the floor. He then turned to Tails with his red optics.

"Good Morning." He said. "Do you care to explain why I woke up on the floor?"

Tails sighed. "You were in the way, so I had to move you."

Metal tilted his head. "Was that a necessary thing to do?"

Tails glared at him. "Was it necessary for you to injure the people you saved me from?"

"It was to deter them from any further action against you."

"Still wasn't necessary." Tails replied. "That's why I pushed you aside."

Tails went back to watching TV, while Metal simply stared at either Tails or the television.

For a few minutes, none of them spoke. Until Metal broke the silence.

"I have a question to ask you." He said.

"I'm not letting you watch the television." Tails replied.

Metal stared at Tails in confusion. "That is not what I was going to ask you. I require energy to charge my battery."

Tails turned to look suspiciously at him.

Metal continued. "Typically, I can last two weeks without having to recharge. I can conserve energy by going into a sleep mode, similar to how you conserve and recharge your energy when you sleep. However, unlike you, I would need an energy source to recharge. Right now, I am almost out of power, so I am asking if you have a sufficient energy source so I could recharge my battery."

Tails continued to stare at him for a bit before speaking. "Would the power outlet in the living room do?"

Metal turned and stared at the power outlet that was nearby. He analyzed it for a few seconds and turned back to Tails.

"Do you have anything better then that?" he asked.

"I have some batteries in the workshop." Tails answered. "But I don't trust you to even bring them out, so that outlet is your only option."

Metal stared at the outlet again. "There is a…."

"IS THE POWER OUTLET OKAY OR NOT!?" Tails snapped at Metal.

"Positive." Metal replied, taken aback by Tails' sudden outburst. "Although because of the wattage the outlet is generating, I will only reach 50% power capacity."

"If you can do it, go right ahead and plug yourself in." Tails said turning away from Metal.

Metal turned back to the power outlet and stared at it for a bit. He couldn't believe Tails was forcing him to use an inferior source to charge him. But judging from the way Tails had been treating him so far, he really should have saw this conclusion coming.

Metal opened a compartment on his side and pulled out an extension cord. After pulling it to the appropriate length, he plugged it in to the outlet.

For a moment, the power in Tails' house fluctuated, causing everything to flicker. It soon went back to normal though.

A warning came over Metal's vision, notifying him that the energy source he was currently plugged into was generating insufficient energy and would only partially charge him. Metal ignored this; this was his only option after all.

For the next few hours, Tails simply went through his normal routine, watching television, and going into his workshop to work on something, with him occasionally glaring at Metal suspiciously when he went past him. This was despite Metal not being able to do anything at the moment due to being plugged in. Almost as if he was a sentient lamp that Tails didn't want.

However when Tails was eating his lunch, he heard an unexpected noise.

 _Knock Knock Knock._

Tails put his sandwich down and turned his head to the front door. The person at the door continued to knock on the door.

 _Knock Knock Knock._

"Tails?" The person at the door asked. "Are you there?"

Tails, realizing who it was, quickly got up and ran to Metal and unplugged him.

Metal turned to him in surprise. "I wasn't fin..." he said before Tails grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into a nearby closet, where he tossed him in there.

Metal was about to speak again when Tails quickly shut him up.

"Someone's come to visit me." He said in a hushed voice while glaring at him. "Remember, not a sound."

He then closed the door, leaving Metal alone in darkness.

Tails then ran over to the front door, with the person outside continuing to knock on the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Tails said with annoyance as he opened the door.

Much to his surprise, he found Silver was standing there.

"Oh." Tails said. "Uh, hi Silver."

"Hi Tails." Silver replied waving his hand at him. "Can I come in?"

Tails turned his head towards the closet where Metal was. Wondering if Silver might accidentally discover him. He then concluded that as long as Metal kept quiet, he would be safe.

"Sure." Tails said turning back to Silver. "You can come in."

Silver stepped inside and looked around for a bit. A bit surprised over how clean Tails' house was despite the grief Tails was going through.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Tails asked Silver as he looked around.

"Well, Amy wanted me to visit you, since neither her or Knuckles have seen you since Sonic' funeral." Silver explained.

He then turned his head towards Tails and lowered it. "I'm sorry about him by the way."

Tails looked away, his eyes filled with sadness. "I got that a lot at the funeral."

"I'm sure you did." Silver replied. "You did know him the best, and he was like a brother to you."

Tails gave a small smile. "Yes, he was."

"So uh, how are you doing?" Silver asked trying to continue to converse with Tails.

"I'm doing fine." Tails replied quietly.

"I know Amy and Knuckles haven't visited you, but has anyone else like Shadow visited you?"

Tails looked back at the closet. "Um, no. No one has visited me."

"Oh." Silver said. "You must have been lonely with no one to talk to."

"Well, I did talk to someone when I went into town to get some food." Tails said.

"What did you converse about?" Silver asked.

Tails sighed and lowered his head. "He just simply said he's sorry about Sonic."

"Can't imagine him saying anything else in your situation." Silver said.

Tails didn't hear Silver's reply. Instead he looked at the photo of him and Sonic again, and thought about him for a bit. He then considered who was with him right now and an idea came to his head.

"Silver, you're from the future right?" Tails said turning to Silver.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Silver asked in surprise.

"You must know a way to go back in time because of the fact you're here now." Tails continued, staring hopefully at Silver.

Silver's face however became concerned. "Tails, if you're thinking of what I know you're going to..." He started.

"Could you travel back in time and maybe save Sonic before he dies?" Tails asked, a small, hopeful smile across his face.

For a few moments, neither of them spoke. Tails was staring at Silver, waiting for an answer that would make him happy, while Silver simply stared at Tails with a face of both pity and regret.

Finally, he sighed. "Tails, I don't think I can do that."

The hopeful expression of Tails' face disappeared and was replaced with a face of shock. "Wha...What do you mean?"

"I mean, even though I can use a chaos emerald to travel back in time, I heard the reports. Sonic only had enough time to get the robot out of the city and away from citizens. There wasn't enough time for him or anyone else to escape the explosion once he moved it away from everyone else."

Silver then looked down. "I'm sorry Tails, but I can't bring him back."

Silver raised his head slightly and looked at Tails. The fox's face was a look of utter despair. In his mind, Silver was his last remaining hope of bringing his brother back to life and it was just snuffed out. He even saw his hand shaking and his eyes beginning to well up with tears as he was forced to accept the harsh reality.

His brother wasn't going to come back

"Tails, I'm sorry if I sounded..." Silver began as he approached Tails.

"Get out." Tails suddenly said stepping away from him.

"Tails listen, I know it's hard but..." Silver tried to say, desperately trying to comfort the kit.

"GET OUT!" Tails yelled as he grabbed a book and threw it at Silver, who managed to catch it with his powers.

Silver tried to continue to comfort, but Tails kept picking up various things and throwing them at Silver and continued to yell at him to get out. With Silver managing to stop them with his telekinesis.

Eventually, Silver got tired of it and dropped the thrown objects to the ground and used his powers to shove Tails back a bit.

Tails sat up and looked at Silver, his expression a mix of anger and sadness.

"I can see why Amy was so concerned about you." Silver said staring at Tails.

Tails said nothing as he continued to stare at Silver.

"Tails, you need to understand that isolating yourself from others isn't going to make things any better for you." Silver continued. "Sonic' death isn't easy for any of us, but the rest of us are trying to help get through this together. You on the other hand seem to think that being alone is going to fix everything, but it won't"

Tails said nothing, but Silver could see that tears were streaming down his face.

Finally, he spoke in a quiet voice. "Just leave."

Reluctantly Silver obliged, but before he exited through the door, he stopped and looked at Tails.

"I'll talk to Amy to have her visit you next week." He said. "Just try to understand that we're just trying to help you get through this."

He then left, closing the door behind him.

For awhile, Tails didn't move from where Silver pushed him. He was crying, not because of what he was just told, but partially because of the fact that he had tried to attack one of his friends.

He needed someplace to try and calm himself down. Slowly getting up, he ran towards the door to his workshop and entered it.

* * *

In the closet that he was in, Metal processed what had happened.

He might not have seen the conversation between Tails and Silver, but he was able to hear every word they said.

Thinking about what Tails was going through, it was obvious Tails was going to ask Silver about trying to go back in time in the desperate hope of getting Sonic back. Bargaining was one of the five stages of grief after all.

But how Tails had reacted to Silver's answer was what really concerned him. While Metal could understand Tails not trusting him given his own history with Metal. The way he heard Tails yell at Silver really confirmed to Metal that Tails needed someone to help him get through his grief.

In order to do that, Metal had to break the rules that Tails had established.

He was certain that Silver had left by now, but he still decided to be cautious just in case.

Cracking the door open slightly, he peeked through the crack to see if it was clear. He found no one around.

Leaving the closet, he spotted the mess that he presumed was the result of Tails and Silver's argument.

He decided that he would clean it up later, his biggest priority right now was trying to comfort Tails.

He continued to walk, coming across a door that was ajar. Metal had presumed this was the door that led to Tails' workshop. He apparently had forgotten to completely close it in his grief.

For a moment, Metal stopped at the door, remembering the rules Tails had given to Metal when he first moved in.

 _You are not allowed in my room or workshop._

Metal shook his head. If Tails was going to get better, it would mean he would need to break a few rules.

Metal pushed the door open and entered the workshop.

Inside, he found what seemed to be a room about the size of a garage. On one side, there were a couple of monitors displaying various types of data. The other end had a few workbenches of varying sizes, and tools that were hung on a wall nearby.

Although Metal had the impression that Tails was an organized person, the workshop looked like it was somewhat in disarray with some tools left on workbenches and various papers strewn around all over the place. It did not take long for Metal to come to the conclusion to why this was the case at the moment.

He saw Tails at one of the workbenches, working furiously at something with a wrench. Although in he seemed to be growing frustrated at the result. He so caught up in his work that he had not noticed Metal entering the workshop.

Metal slowly approached Tails as he was focused on his work. When he was close enough, he finally spoke.

"Silver is right you know."

Tails turned in surprise and saw Metal standing there.

"What you you doing in here?" Tails asked, his surprise turning to anger. "I thought I told you not to go in here."

Metal ignored that statement and continued. "Isolating yourself will not make you feel any better. You just need to look at the way you are behaving to see that it is not helping."

"Why do you care?" Tails asked, his voice quivering.

"I care because I do not think Sonic would want to see..."

"YOU'RE NOT HIM!" Tails suddenly shouted. "YOU'RE JUST A COPY MADE TO DESTROY HIM!"

"Tails listen..."

"SHUT UP!" Tails yelled as he picked up the wrench and raised it defensively. "I'LL REDUCE YOU TO SCRAP IF YOU DON'T LEAVE."

Metal simply stared at Tails. The threat had no impact on Metal as he knew that the fox had no way of following up on that threat despite having a wrench in his hand. The wrench he was wielding did not look like it could do any damage against Metal, and from what he had seen, Tails' current emotional state put him in no condition to fight.

Additionally, Metal could see that Tails did not have it in him to carry through the act right now. The hand that was holding the wrench was shaking and he could see that tears were beginning to well up in his eyes.

As Metal watched, Tails began to cry and collapse to his knees, lowering the wrench as he did so. Eventually, he collapsed to his knees and wept.

"It's all my fault." He began to say. "It's my fault that he died."

Metal continued to stare at him. He finally understood why Tails was having a harder time getting over Sonic' death. Looking at him crying, he knew that he had to find some way to comfort him now.

The answer to that came easily. He slowly began to walk towards Tails and extended one of his arms towards the top of his head.

He had seen Sonic do this a hundred times, it should be easy enough to do.

He lowered his hand on Tails' head and began to run his hand through the tuft of fur on it.

Feeling this, Tails looked up and saw what Metal was doing.

"Why?" he asked through the weeps.

Metal tilted his head. "It's what he would do whenever he saw that you were sad."

Metal removed his hand from Tails' head and stepped away from him while Tails stood there, trying to process what Metal had done.

Metal spoke. "As I was saying, Sonic would not want to see you like this. Understand that your friends are only trying to help."

Tails stared at Metal for a moment, thinking about what he said.

Finally he spoke. "Silver said he was going to have Amy visit me next week, but maybe you'll do for now."

Metal looked at Tails in surprise. For the first time since he moved in with Tails; Tails had spoken with him without any veiled hostility or annoyance over him. It was not exactly full trust in Metal, but it was a start.

"Are you capable of working right now?" Metal asked.

Tails looked at Metal. "Why do you ask?"

"There is a tracker inside me." Metal explained. "I need you to remove it."


	7. Removal

**A/N:** _Bit of a short chapter this week. I originally intended to have it released last week, but apparently the universe decided to give me a hard time with life and college, so it got delayed._

* * *

Metal stared at the chains that held his arms up and restrained them. Tails had put them on once he had sat down on the workbench.

"Is this necessary?" Metal asked, indicating the chains that held him.

"It's a precaution." Tails replied as he began grabbing the appropriate tools for the job. "I don't exactly want you running off or doing anything."

That was ridiculous. He was not planning on doing anything that would betray Tails. But it was still pretty clear Tails didn't fully trust him yet.

He watched as Tails placed wrenches, screwdrivers, and various other tools on the table near him.

"Now I don't like telling someone like you this, but I'm going to need your help if I'm going to do this." Tails said as he observed one of the tools he had picked up. "Where exactly is this tracker located?"

Metal began to search his memory banks. The doctor had been very careful not to show the blueprints for some of his more important projects, but Metal had occasionally seen them whenever Eggman was going through them. Through this, he concluded that he must have seen the blueprints for himself at some point.

Narrowing his search, he tried to remember times when he might have glimpsed at his blueprints, even for a millisecond.

He eventually narrowed it down to exactly 57 probable times where he might have saw his own blueprints. The number went down as he replayed them and found some that didn't have his blueprints.

Eventually he found an optimal memory that gave him a good view of his blueprints. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do. Analyzing the blueprints, he located where the tracker was.

"It is in the torso section." Metal finally replied. "You will need to remove the thruster part in order to remove it."

Tails observed the screws that held Metal's thruster in place, trying figuring out what size screwdriver he'd need.

He picked up one of the screwdrivers from off the table went over to Metal. As he did so, Metal noticed the hand holding the screwdriver was trembling slightly, a sign that Tails was still recovering from his emotional outburst.

"Just to be clear, I'm only doing this because you asked me to. Not because I like you." He said. "Do you understand?"

Metal nodded.

"Good."

He then went to Metal's back and began to unscrew the screws.

"You know, it's kind of understandable that Eggman has a tracker in you." Tails said as he worked. "You are his best robot after all."

"That is true." Metal replied. "But I suspect there is another purpose behind the tracker. To keep an eye on me."

"Well that too, especially after the Metal Overlord incident." Tails said as the first screw came loose.

He moved on to the second screw. "Why do you want the tracker removed anyway? Do you have something planned that will involve you attacking Eggman and us?"

"That is partially correct." Metal replied turning his head towards Tails. "I have cut ties…."

"With Eggman, you've told me that before." Tails finished,.

"Correct, but I do not have anything planned against you or your friends."

"I highly doubt that." Tails muttered as he continued.

Once all the screws were out, Tails removed the thruster and looked at the exposed interior. It was a series of wires, circuitry, and various processors.

It was also a bit dark in there, so Tails went to get a flashlight. After finding one, he returned to Metal and began to shine it on Metal's interior.

"What exactly does this tracker look like?" Tails asked as he took a looked around the open torso.

Metal went back to the memory of when he saw the blueprint and searched for exact location of the tracker and what it looked like.

"It is on the right side of where I am facing right now." Metal answered. "It should be red with a light flickering."

Tails pointed his flashlight at the area Metal described and found a red, plastic device that had Eggmans symbol on it and was flashing a white light.

Looking closer, he saw that it was being held in place by four small screws, much smaller then the ones that held Metal's thruster.

Tails went back to the table of tools and grabbed a small screwdriver that would help him with the smaller screws that held the tracker in place.

Tails went to Metal and propping the flashlight between his shoulder and head to see better, he removed the screws that held the tracker and removed it from Metal.

"Got the tracker." Tails said placing the tracker on the table.

"Good, now listen closely." Metal said. "If you have any devices that are capable of flying long distances, you need to..."

 _THWACK._

Metal turned his head in the direction of the sound, startled by the sudden noise.

To his horror, Tails had grabbed a wrench and had brought it down on the tracker, destroying it.

Tails looked at Metal. "What?" he asked.

"What have you done?" Metal asked, his voice alarmed by what Tails had done.

"Destroyed the tracker." Tails replied in a matter of fact tone.

"Are you mad?!" Metal asked, his voice quivering with anger. "I had a plan to fool Eggman into thinking I left here."

"Well you should have told me before I removed the tracker." Tails shouted back. "What were you going to do with it anyway?"

"I was planning on having you attach the tracker to a drone if you had one. Then once it left, I planned on contacting Eggman saying that I have left. That would have gotten him away from me for awhile."

"So your plan was to lead it away and have Eggman find it somewhere else?" Tails asked. "I don't think that would be a permanent solution."

Metal lunged forward, the chains that held his arms stopping him. This caused Tails to step back a few feet with a scared look on his face.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK EGGMAN WILL NOT GET SUSPICIOUS OF MY TRACKER GOING OFFLINE!?" Metal yelled. "IF I DO NOT RESPOND TO HIM WITHIN 2 DAYS, HE WILL INVESTIGATE AND SINCE I HAVE NOT LEFT HERE, HE WILL SEND ROBOTS HERE AND PUT YOU IN DANGER!"

Tails was silent for a few moments, surprised by Metal's outburst. He finally sighed and walked closer to Metal.

"Look, you asked me to remove the tracker. You didn't say anything about your plan, so I assumed you wanted the tracker destroyed. I did what I wanted you to do." Tails said angry, but calm voice. "Now I'm going to put your thruster back in place and I want you to leave my workshop. Understood?"

Metal stared for a moment before he responded. "Affirmative."

Tails went back and put his thruster back on his back. Once he was done putting the screws back in place, he undid the chain that held Metal's hands in place.

"Get out." Tails said pointing to the door out of the workshop.

Metal stared at Tails for a moment before doing so, with Tails keeping an eye on him the entire time until he left the workshop and closed the door.

Metal went back to the living room and sat down on the couch for about an hour, thinking about what had happened.

He was angry right now. Angry at Tails for destroying the tracker and not listening to his plan. Angry at Eggman for possibly now knowing what he was doing and no doubt planning on capture him.

But mostly, he was angry at himself.

He was angry for lashing out at Tails when expressing his anger at Tails destroying the tracker. In that moment, he was glad Tails had restrained him since he didn't know what he would do if he was not restrained.

He wondered if Sonic ever had moments like these with Tails when he was still alive. While he had not witnessed them himself, he assumed that they did not have violent outbursts from either of them.

That still did not change the fact that the outburst had probably lowered his chances of gaining Tails' trust more quickly.

For awhile he sat down, thinking about what had happened. While he was relived that the tracker was out of him, thus Eggman was off his back for now. Tails' decision to destroy it mean that the doctor would send robots here to investigate. This had the potential to put Tails in danger, and in his current emotional state, he might not be able to fight the robots off.

But Metal concluded that as long as he was here, he would not let any harm come to Tails.

Metal got up from the couch and went into the kitchen and noticed the sandwich Tails was eating before Silver's visit.

He stared at it for a moment, occasionally changing his glances to the workshop door.

He then picked up the plate and walked over to the door. He opened it slightly to peek through.

He saw that Tails was asleep at one of the workbenches. He had apparently done so when working on something.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, he walked over to where Tails was and placed the plate on the workshop.

He then left the workshop, making sure to close the door quietly.

* * *

A few minutes later, Tails stirred awake and noticed the partially eaten sandwich that had appeared. He looked at the door, easily figuring out who brought it here.

He then picked up the sandwich and began to eat it.

A few hours later, Tails left his workshop and went into the living room. When he entered it, he saw that Metal was sitting down and watching the television.

For a moment, he stayed where he was and just watched Metal. He was still suspicious of Metal as he didn't say why he was here and when he questioned him, Metal just said he split ties with Eggman.

But he then thought about what had happened with the past few hours. That moment when Metal had entered his workshop, and his own emotional meltdown. He fully expected Metal to just stand there and watch him suffer in his sadness when that happened.

But then Metal did something he never expected. He had walked over to him and comforted him in a way Sonic would whenever he saw him depressed.

Thinking about some of the things Metal had done, Tails now felt conflicted about him. While it was still true that he really didn't like Metal, his actions over the past few days had really confused Tails. From saving him from the thugs, him trying to comfort him, and asking Tails to remove the tracker inside.

All of those actions were causing Tails to think that Metal's intentions might be benevolent.

Tails shook his head, he needed to be somewhere he could think alone. He walked out of the living room and into his bedroom and sat down on his bed, picking up a photo of him and Sonic as he did.

He looked at the photo with sadness. He deeply missed his brother and thought about his conversation with Silver.

" _Isolating yourself from others isn't going to make things better with you."_ He heard echo in his mind.

He looked at the door to his room. While Amy was going to visit him in a week, there was already someone here for him to talk about his problems with. Someone he really didn't want to talk to, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized the truth.

Right now, the only person who seemed to understand him was Metal Sonic.

Putting the photo away, he lied down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

Tomorrow, he would ask Metal and find out his intentions.


	8. Confrontation

He was in the forest again. Once again, it was still ruined and Tails could still hear Sonic' voice calling out to him.

"I'm coming Sonic." Tails cried out as he began to run, despite knowing that the result would be the same.

He once again reached the edge of the clearing where Sonic was standing. Picking up a nearby rock, he tossed it at the clearing and saw it land on the ground. Stepping forward, he felt his foot sink into the ground as the clearing surrounding Sonic became a bog. Having to deal with this again, he made is way through the bog, and to the clearing where Sonic stood.

"Why didn't you warn me Tails?" Sonic asked.

"I...I'm sorry Sonic." Tails stammered. "I was just so focused on landing the plane that I didn't know until it was too late."

"That was no excuse." Sonic replied. "You could have checked as you tried to land the plane."

"I know that, but I was just so focused on landing the plane that I didn't have time to check the energy of the robot."

"That is nonsense, you still could've tried it."

Tails was silent at that. Inside, he knew that there was no excuse. If he had warned Sonic about the unstable energy before he fought The Tortoise, then Sonic would have been alive.

He decided to move on to that subject. "Even if you still died after I warned you about the unstable energy. Please try to understand that I'm trying to get over your death."

Sonic turned to him. "By taking in and talking to a robot that has tried to kill you and me multiple times?" He asked in anger.

"You don't understand." Tails replied in grief. "He's the only one who understands me right now."

"HE WAS CREATED BY EGGMAN!" Sonic yelled. "WHY ARE YOU EVEN TRUSTING HIM."

"I don't trust him fully." Tails yelled back in sadness. "I don't know why he's here, but I do believe he's trying to help me."

Sonic suddenly grabbed Tails and pulled him closer to his face.

"If you wanted help, why didn't you go to your other friends instead of relying on a robotic version of me?" Sonic snarled.

Tails heard the sound of energy charging up. Turning his head he saw the Tortoise had appeared next to them.

"NO!" Tails yelled as the robot exploded and the blast reached him and Sonic.

* * *

Tails woke with a start in his bed, letting out several rapid breaths.

He looked out the window and saw that it was morning. He must have fallen asleep at some point after he went into his room.

'At least I didn't wake up in the middle of the night.' Tails thought. 'That's an improvement right?'

Tails exited his room and walked into the kitchen. Much to his surprise, he saw Metal in the kitchen and cooking something at the stove.

Metal turned his attention away from the stove for a moment and towards Tails. "Good Morning."

It took Tails a moment to reply. "Morning." He eventually said. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I am cooking breakfast for you." Metal replied turning his had back towards the stove. "It should be ready for you in exactly one minute."

Tails went to the table and sat down. Soon after Metal came to him setting a plate that had a fried egg and some sausages on it.

"I recommend you eat most of it." Metal stated. "I have noticed that your eating habits are not quite optimal for someone like you."

Tails stared at the plate for a moment. Unsure of whether to eat the food or not.

"I did not put any thing that would poison you." Metal added. "I only put some salt on the eggs."

Tails looked at the food for another moment, before he sighed. Grabbing a fork and knife and began to eat the egg's on his plate.

Much to his surprise, the egg's tasted good. He never thought that a killer robot like Metal would have some skill with cooking.

As he ate the breakfast, he noticed Metal sitting on the other end of the table. Looking at his hand as his fingers seemed to twitch nervously.

After awhile, Metal spoke. "I want to apologize."

Tails stopped eating and looked at Metal. "What?" he asked.

"For my outburst yesterday." Metal continued. "I should have told you my plan for it before I had you remove the tracker."

"I still got it out for you." Tails replied. "Wasn't that what you wanted?"

"True." Metal replied. "But I do wish you heard me out before you smashed the tracker."

Tails put another piece of egg in his mouth. "Alright." he muttered as he chewed. "I accept your apology. Now I want you to tell me why you're here."

Metal raised his head in surprise. "What?"

"I want to know why you're here." Tails repeated. "You haven't given me a clear answer ever since you got here. All you've ever said was that you've distanced yourself from Eggman, but you never said why."

Tails put his fork down. "So please answer my question. Why did you separate him?"

Metal was silent for a moment, as if he was considering what to do.

Finally he spoke. "Okay, I will tell you why I'm here."

"Remember, I want you to tell me everything." Tails said.

Metal looked down. "I am sure you know about how I witnessed Sonic' sacrifice."

"True." Tails replied. "You did tell me that when you first visited me that night."

"I had also witnessed the funeral of him from the exterior of the church. I had also witnessed how others reacted on the news during the week between witnessing the funeral, and when I first visited you. You have witnessed those reports, have you not?"

Tails shook his head. "I avoided the news after the funeral. I just didn't like being reminded of what happened to Sonic."

"I see." Metal said before continuing. "As I watched those reports, combined with factors such as the aforementioned witnessing of Sonic' sacrifice, how people reacted to his death, questioning what to do now that my enemy is dead, and analyzing multiple scenarios. I could only come to one conclusion."

"And what might that be?" Tails asked.

"In order for Eggman to be stopped, I would need to replace Sonic as the hero of this world."

Tails was silent at that statement. As if he was thinking about what Metal had said.

Finally he spoke. "I don't think you can do that."

Metal tilted his head. "Why not?"

"Do you really think people would trust you after what you've done?" Tails pointed out. "You've worked with Eggman since you were created. Doing jobs for him, fighting Sonic, and attacking others. You've even tried to conquer the world yourself at one point."

"Shadow did terrible things at first as well, and you still see him as a hero." Metal replied.

"True, but Shadow made up for his actions quickly. You probably won't be as easily forgiven by others after what you've done throughout the years."

"Maybe not at first." Metal said. "But I the public might eventually see that I have changed."

"Was that why you came to me in the first place?" Tails asked. "To learn from me over what Sonic was like so you can try to be like him."

"That part is true." Metal answered. "I also came here to try to comfort you, as when I saw you at the funeral, I foresaw that you might need some help as you seemed to take Sonic' death the hardest."

"Well, you were right about trying help me get through Sonic' death." Tails said going back to eating his food. "But if you're looking to replace Sonic as the hero, then I can't exactly help you there."

"Because I can never be him?" Metal asked. "I do agree with that statement."

"Really?" Tails asked in surprise.

"I believe I can be better then him."

Tails stared at him, his face now replaced with doubt. "Did you say that because that's what Eggman programmed you to believe, or was that a thought of your own?"

Metal was silent for a good 5 seconds before he responded. "I am uncertain of the answer to that question."

Tails sighed and put his silverware down. "Look, I'm beginning to see that you might have good intentions in terms of helping me get through Sonic' death. But if you want to be a hero, you're on your own for this one."

Tails then got up from his chair and walked away to his workshop, leaving Metal alone.

Metal got up from his chair and checked on the plate Tails was eating from. He saw that Tails had eaten the sausages and most of the eggs.

Feeling that was satisfactory for him, he disposed of the remaining food and cleaned the plate.

* * *

Meanwhile at Eggman's base, Eggman was staring at a monitor with concern and suspicion.

Metal's call from a few days ago did make him slightly suspicious, but he had reasoned that it was possible an emerald was going to be in the area, but someone didn't want the public to know about it.

However as the days went by, his suspicion grew. Aside from one time he went into the town that was nearby, Metal seamed to stay in one area. For awhile, Eggman tried to justify it as Metal simply camping out until he detected the emerald.

Then, Metal's tracker went offline.

Concerned with his safety, he tried to contact Metal, breaking the one week radio silence he had promised Metal. He got no response from him.

Right now, two possibilities were going through his mind. Either Metal was discovered and ended up being destroyed, or he had managed to find out where the tracker was located and destroy it.

Both of them was rather concerning.

Staring at the monitor that showed an above view of the area that Metal had been in when his tracker went offline, he came to a decision.

He then pressed a button. "Get some robots ready, and make sure the Eggmobile is functional. I will be going there with them."

He got up from his chair and walked out of the room.

* * *

At Tails' house. Things had gone relatively normal after breakfast. Metal went back to helping do chores around the house and Tails worked on something in his workshop.

Metal had been meaning to ask Tails what he was doing in the workshop, but there was something else that was in his mind.

He thought about that moment in the workshop yesterday. When Tails broke down, muttering about something being his fault. He had a suspicion over what he meant, but because of the fact that Sonic seemed to be a touchy subject at the moment, he decided not to press it right now.

Right now, Tails was taking a break from working and was watching TV, with Metal sitting beside him. The program they were watching was a small comedy show. Tails seemed to be enjoying the show a bit more, but like before, Metal wasn't laughing at it.

"I do not get it." Metal said as he watched it. "Why do you organic lifeforms enjoy these type of shows?"

Tails sighed "I'll take it Eggman never installed a sense of humor in you." He remarked.

"Correct, the doctor did not see that as a priority when he was creating me."

"What did he prioritize instead of that?"

"Speed, strength, durability. There were other things he focused on when creating me, but those were the primary factors when building me."

"I see."

There was a few minutes of silence as they continued to watch the television.

Suddenly, Tails began to hear the faint sound of mechanical marching outside.

"What's that noise?" Tails asked.

Metal got up and walked in the direction the noise was coming from, and peeked out the window. Tails followed, curious to see what was making that sound.

Outside, there was a squad of robots standing in front of Tails' house and leading them was Eggman himself.

Tails glared at Metal. "Did you call Eggman here?" he asked accusingly.

"Negative, my last contact with Eggman was exactly 5 days ago, and the call did not involve sending Eggman here." Metal responded.

"Well what did it involve?" Tails asked.

"It involved me lying to him about waiting for a chaos emerald that was going to come through here and how I was going to ambush it."

Tails was going to ask why he lied, but he stopped himself because he already knew what the answer was going to be.

He looked out the window again. "What are we going to do?"

"Simple, I will handle this while you stay inside." Metal said.

"What?" Tails exclaimed turning towards Metal. "You want me to do nothing? I can handle Eggman's robots."

"Negative, your current emotional state is not stable and could potentially end with you getting harmed."

"I've handled things in worse states you know." Tails shouted back.

Metal turned his head and glared at him. Tails knew that he was in no position to argue as Metal had made up his mind.

Metal then walked away from the window and went to the door and opened it.

Eggman noticed the door open and saw Metal exit the home he and his robots had surrounded.

"Ah Metal Sonic, glad to see you're alright." Eggman said as Metal approached him.

Metal simply stared at him. "What are you doing here Eggman?"

"I simply wanted to visit you to see what's going on with you." Eggman answered. "Especially since it seems that you haven't left this area last I checked."

"That is positive. I have been staying in this area for the past 5 days." Metal replied.

"I assume you're still waiting for that chaos emerald to come here." Eggman said. "Tell me, has it arrived yet, or will you need to wait few more days?"

Metal was silent at that question. He was beginning to not like this one bit.

"Oh, so you have no answer for that." Eggman said, noticing Metal's silence. "Now for the second reason of why I'm here. Your tracker went offline last night, I assume you know what happened do it."

Metal looked down. He knew that Eggman was going to ask that question. Why else would he be here personally. He also knew there was no way of covering up this one. So he had to reveal the truth to him.

"I willingly had it removed and destroyed." Metal responded.

"You did what?" Eggman exclaimed. "Why would you even do that?"

Metal glared at Eggman. "Because I am through working with you."

Eggman looked at Metal in surprise. "What?"

"I have concluded that continuing to work for you after the death of Sonic has no benefits for me. Therefore, I have decided that I will now fight you wherever you strike."

Eggman was silent at that statement. He then sighed. "There must be something wrong with you Metal Sonic. I'll take you back to my base and we'll see what's wrong with you."

Eggman began to slowly fly away, Metal however, continued to stand where he was, not even moving.

Eggman looked back when he realized Metal wasn't following him. "Metal Sonic, are you going to come."

Metal continued not to move.

Eggman sighed. "Fine, I'll have one of the robots carry you back to base."

He turned to one of his robots. "Pick him up and let's get out of here."

The robot walked over to Metal and reached out to grab his arm.

It was then that Metal moved. Right when the robot grabbed one arm, Metal punched right through the robot with his free arm.

Metal removed his arm from the robot and watched as the robot seemed to remain standing for a few seconds before it let go of his arm and collapsed to the ground.

Eggman looked at the scene in shock, while Metal turned his glare back at him.

"If I was not clear enough when I stated it, I will repeat it again." Metal said. "I no longer work for you."

Eggman, shaking with anger pointed at Metal. "Take him apart, and bring the parts to me!" he shouted at the robots.

The remaining robots began to charge at Metal as he prepared to fight them.


	9. A New Friendship

As Metal watched the robot's charge at him, he analyzed and predicted their possible attacks. When Eggman had built him, he made sure he had the ability to counter and dodge any possible attack when in a fight. While the ability wasn't perfect, it still allowed him to put up a good fight against Sonic.

Right now however, he was fighting robots, and they were much easier to predict compared to Sonic.

Just as the first robot was about to grab him, Metal stepped to the side and rammed his fist into the back of the robot, deactivating it.

Metal turned his attention to the next robot, who was about to bring it's fist down on Metal. Metal dodged it before it hit him and dodged the next strike before he used his claws to slice the front of the robot.

For a few moments, the robot wobbled, trying to stay upright. Metal then gave it a good kick and the robot collapsed to the ground, dead.

Metal was suddenly hit from the side and landed on his back. Looking up, he saw another robot approaching him, aiming it's blaster directly at him.

Metal rolled out of the way as it fired it's blaster again, getting up as he did so. He then activated his thruster and charged at the robot. He grabbed the robot when he was close enough and shot himself in the air with it.

Metal then threw the robot towards the branch of a tree. The robot was impaled on the branch, instantly deactivating it.

Looking down, he saw one more robot aiming it's blaster at him. He charged downwards towards the robot, dodging the blaster fire as he did so.

Once he was close enough, he slashed at the robot with his claws a couple of times before he finished the robot off by punching through the robot.

With all the robots gone, he turned his attention to Eggman. Much to his surprise, he had not fled when Metal started destroying his robots. Instead, he just sat in his Egg-Mobile, simply grinning.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Eggman asked. "Attack me. It's what Sonic would've done."

Metal continued to stand there. The way Eggman was openly inviting him to attack him was suspicious. There had to be something else he was missing.

It was like his final encounter with Sonic. As he stood there at the end of the alley with Sonic cornered, he was confident that Sonic had lost. But Sonic' goading caused him to act, not knowing that it was part of a plan to take down the tortoise.

He did not want to make the same mistake he did back then. But at the same time, he needed Eggman to leave to protect Tails.

He turned to Eggman. "I will only give you one chance to follow this. Leave now, and I will not harm you."

Eggman raised an eyebrow. "Is that the best you've got? Just telling me to leave? I thought I built you to do better then that."

He then pressed a button and a small cannon came out of the bottom of the Egg-Mobile. "I guess you'll need some motivation."

He then pressed another button and the cannon fired an energy blast that Metal dodged by rolling out of the way. This resulted in the blast hitting the ground, leaving a small crater.

"Fine then." Metal said getting his claws ready. "Then I will show you what I can do."

Metal activated his thruster and charged towards Eggman. When he was close enough to him, he leaped forward and prepared to attack him.

Just as that was about to happen, Metal suddenly felt an electric shock from his own systems and he collapsed to the ground.

As he tried to get up, his vision distorted and various warnings flashing across is, he heard Eggman laughing.

"Did you really think the tracker was the only precaution I put in you after the Metal Overlord incident?" He asked with glee.

Metal managed to look at Eggman, who was grinning more evilly then before.

"You see, I put a device in you that will allow me to give you an electrical shock whenever you try attack me." Eggman explained. "I didn't put it in your blueprints since I knew you would try to get it removed if you went rogue."

Metal slowly got up, staring at Eggman. Of course Eggman would add more precautions in order to ensure that he could easily neutralize him in case he turned on him again.

"Go on." Eggman said. "Try again, Sonic always did whenever we fought."

Metal once again activated his thruster and charged at Eggman. Just as he was close to him, the same electrical shock went through his systems and he collapsed to the ground.

"You've had your chance to attack me." Eggman said as Metal twitched on the ground. "Now it's my turn."

Eggman directed the cannon towards Metal and fired it at him. The blast hit Metal, knocking him back.

For a few moments, Metal couldn't see anything through the dust, but he could tell from the warnings that flashed across his screen that he had lost function with his legs.

Before the dust cleared, he began to try to crawl away from Eggman, he tried to activate his thruster to go faster, but it appeared that the blast from the cannon had disabled that as well.

"Oh ho ho, where do you think you're going?" He heard Eggman say.

He heard the cannon fire again and it hit him again, knocking him to his back.

Metal weakly turned his head and looked at where Eggman was. Through the various warnings that were flashing at him, he saw that Eggman was grinning evilly as he prepared to fire another shot at him.

All Metal could do was stare in horror. He only had one functional arm, and both of his legs were disabled.

It felt like this was the end for him. He could do nothing but lie helplessly as the doctor finished him off.

Just as the doctor was about to fire the shot, he heard another voice.

"NO, DON'T HURT HIM!"

To his surprise, he saw Tails run in front of him, shielding him from Eggman. Although he couldn't see it he seemed to be holding a wrench in his hand.

"Hmmm." he heard Eggman say. "Should've known he would go to you to remove and destroy his tracker."

"Tails….No.." Metal weakly said.

"But there's something more then that. He must've stayed with you for a few days before you removed the tracker."

Tails remained silent, Metal could see the hand holding the wrench was shaking.

"Tell me, why did you even keep him around, much less remove his tracker?" Eggman continued. "He's supposed to be your enemy after all."

A warning came across Metal's screen, informing him that he will shut down in order to preserve memory due to the damage Eggman caused. He tried his best to slow it down, he needed to make sure Tails turned out okay.

"Is is because he reminds you of Sonic? Are you so desperate to cling on to your dead friend that you're willing to take in a robot made to kill him?"

"SHUT UP!" Tails suddenly yelled. "Just go away and leave him alone."

Eggman was silent at that. For a moment, Metal was uncertain of what the doctor would do. As far as he knew, the cannon was still out, and with him effectively crippled, there was nothing stopping the doctor from blowing him and Tails up.

Finally Eggman sighed. "Fine, I'll leave you be."

Metal heard the sound of the cannon going back in the Egg-Mobile. "And you can keep that hunk of scrap. I have no use for him anymore."

With that Eggman flew off, leaving only him and Tails behind.

Just before Metal went offline, he could see Tails turn and run towards him.

* * *

Metal couldn't tell how long he was offline, but when he reactivated, he found himself lying on one of the tables in Tails' workshop.

He began to run a check on his systems. After exactly 5 minutes, he found out that his basic functions were running normally, his thruster was currently offline and needed repairs, and the built in radio that allowed him to contact Eggman had been removed.

Metal slowly got up and looked around, testing his limbs as he did so. He found that both his arms and legs were functional again.

He eventually spotted Tails at another workbench. He was apparently working on something when he spotted Metal sitting up. He had a look of surprise for a brief moment before he walked over to the workbench Metal was on.

"I didn't expect you to wake up so soon." He said as he approached the workbench.

"How long was I out?" Metal asked Tails.

"You were out for about a day." Tails replied. "Eggman put you in pretty bad shape after firing that cannon at you."

Metal looked at his left leg. "I still have parts of me that are non-functional. Were you not able to repair them yet?"

Tails sighed. "I managed to repair your damaged arms and legs, but for some of the other stuff, I had to retrieve the blueprints from your memories. I still need to repair your thruster, and I removed and destroyed your built in radio."

Metal was silent at that. Oddly enough, he did not feel angry at Tails for destroying his radio. Since he could only call Eggman with it and he was no longer working for him, the radio seemed unnecessary.

However, he was still angry at Tails for one thing as he gripped the edge of the workbench in anger.

"What's wrong?" Tails asked noticing what metal did.

Metal turned to Tails, glaring at him. "Why did you not stay inside like I told you to? I specifically told you to stay inside your house."

"I couldn't let you die." Tails replied. "I had to help you."

"That is not possible. You could've easily repaired me after the doctor went away."

"And how would you have done that?." Tails yelled. "With whatever Eggman put in you and the fact that he was just going to destroy you, how would you have made him go away?"

Metal simply stared at him before looking away from him. For once, he could not make a counterargument for what he heard. With the restraint Eggman had put in him and the damage he did thanks to the cannon, Tails' intervention was the only way he would have would have remained functional.

There was also another question on his mind. "Why did you do it then?"

Tails looked at him. "What?"

"Why did you put yourself between me and Eggman? Why risk your life just for me?"

Tails looked down. "When you demanded me to stay inside, I thought you were going to go back with him." He started. "But then I saw you fight off those robots, I realized you were telling the truth. Then when Eggman started blasting you with that cannon..."

He clenched his fist before he continued. "I realized I couldn't stand by and let you get hurt."

Tails looked like he was almost about to cry after saying that. Metal looked at him for a moment before getting up and placing his hand on Tails' shoulder.

"It is okay." Metal said. "I now realize you had to intervene for Eggman to prevent him from causing further damage to me and for him to leave the area."

Tails looked up. "Re...really?" Tails asked shakily.

Metal simply nodded his head.

Then, much to his surprise, Tails wrapped his arms around Metal's torso. Causing him to step back in surprise.

"Is this what humans and mobians call a hug?" Metal asked looking down at Tails.

Tails looked up at him with a sad look in his eyes. "Yes." he said.

Metal processed the information for a moment, then he crouched down and wrapped his arms around Tails.

He eventually released Tails from the hug and stood back up.

"Now, Do you trust me enough to answer a question I am about to ask?" he said.

Tails looked at him, for a moment he didn't know what to say. A few days ago, he wouldn't have trusted Metal enough to even let him finish that question. But after the events of the last few days, he felt that Metal was now someone he could trust.

"Yes." He answered. "What is it?"

"When I left Eggmans base, he ordered me to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. Do you have any idea of where they are?"

Tails thought about it for a moment. "No, not really."

Metal tilted his head. "You did not ask your friends about the whereabouts before the death of Sonic?"

"No, I just didn't think to ask at the time. And since the funeral, I've only spoken with you and Silver."

Metal noticed that he didn't mention the person at the general store, and the thugs that threatened him in the alley. He concluded that Tails didn't think they were important enough.

He also recalled something else. "I heard Silver say he was going to have Amy visit you in a week during his own visit. Could you ask her about the current whereabouts of the chaos emeralds?"

"Of course I can. Why are you asking me this?" Tails asked.

"I intend to know the location of the emeralds so I could collect them in order to protect them from the doctor." Metal answered.

Tails looked at him. "You think you can become a hero just from doing that?"

Metal shrugged. "It is a possible start."

Tails sighed. "Well, I do suppose that I can help you." He said. "Amy won't visit for another few days, so we won't know where the emeralds are until then."

"What do you suggest we do until then?" Metal asked.

"Well, I still need to do some repairs for you, and I need to do some maintenance on the Tornado. So maybe you can help me with that."

"I see." Metal replied.

Tails then began to walk away from Metal. "I'm going to take a break before I continue doing repairs on you." he said as he walked to the door that led out of the workshop.

Just before he opened it though, Metal spoke.

"Tails."

Tails stopped and turned towards Metal.

"Thank you." Metal said. "For saving me."

Tails was silent for a moment before he replied.

"Your welcome."

He then left the workshop, leaving Metal alone with his thoughts.

He had succeeded in gaining Tails' trust, but he knew that was only the first step in replacing Sonic as the hero.

The next step was going to be harder.


	10. Amy's Visit

**Authors Note:** _Hello, it's been over a month for the last chapter._

 _Let me explain the delay. Aside from the usual college work that I had to endure, I was also writing the first couple of chapters for a story I'll be releasing sometime in the next few weeks. It's one that I have been planning for quite awhile. That doesn't mean The Metallic Replacement will go on hiatus as soon as that story begins, chapters will still be for this story. To put it simply, I'll be posting chapters for two stories._

 _Another reason for the delay is that I had seen Avengers Endgame between the last chapter and the next and I needed a few days to recover from it._

 _Anyway enjoy this chapter._

* * *

Over the next few days, Tails and Metal helped each other in preparation for their journey. Tails had made further repairs to Metal, allowing him to regain the use some of his more advanced functions like his thruster. Metal had also helped Tails clean up Eggman's robot attack by helping gather the remains of the robots, which allowed Tails to salvage them for parts for Metal's repairs.

Of course, that was just at Tails' home. They still had to get supplies for the trip. So today, they were heading into town to purchase some necessary one.

Metal was checking the list as he walked beside Tails. "I understand why there is a list of food as you need it for sustenance." He said. "But I do not understand why you require things like bolts and screws for this journey."

"Well I'm going to need to perform maintenance on you every now and then." Tails explained. "And since this whole Chaos Emerald thing might take a week or two, I might have to do it away from my workshop."

Tails then shrugged. "That and I'm running low on those things at home." he added.

"I see." Metal said.

They both arrived at the edge of the town, where they both stopped. Tails had no idea how others were going to react to Metal. From their perspective, Metal was still working for Eggman and were unaware his turn.

For a moment, Tails wondered if he should have left Metal at home. Then he remembered his encounter with the gang that Metal saved him from a few days ago and figured that it was probably for the best that he have someone to protect him for now.

"Well." Tails quietly said to himself. "Here goes nothing."

Tails then walked into the town with Metal following not long after. As they walked through the town, Metal looked around at the sights of the town. He had flown over numerous towns when he was doing the doctors work, and he had visited the town when he followed Tails. But this was his first time seeing a town from the perspective of a normal person. The variety of the stores in the area simply amazed Metal.

However, people who passed by them also glanced at Metal with both surprise and suspicion. Metal had expected this, but it made him slightly uncomfortable nonetheless. The way they were staring at him made him look like he was here to terrorize the town. Something Metal had no intention of doing now that he was no longer allied with Eggman.

Tails looked back at Metal as he stared at a citizen who was glaring at him. "You alright?" He asked.

Metal looked at him. "Affirmative." He responded. "I am just uncertain over how others are reacting at me at the moment."

"Well, they don't really know you're no longer working with Eggmna" Tails said. "I'm sure once they begin to see you've changed, they won't be as suspicious at you."

"Do you really think so?" Metal asked.

"Yeah." Tails said, giving a small smile. "It's gonna take some time though."

They eventually reached the convenience store that Metal had seen Tails go to a few days ago and they stopped just outside.

"You know what." Tails said to Metal. "Maybe you should stay outside for now."

Metal looked at Tails in surprise. "You bring me into town for company, yet you will not allow me to enter a building here?"

"I just don't know how others will react to you just yet." Tails replied. "I think it would be a bit easier for now if you stayed outside."

Metal tilted his head sideways. "And what would happen when someone in the interior of the store spots me?"

"I'll try to explain the situation." Tails answered. "But please, stay outside for now."

Metal processed the info for a few seconds before he replied. "Affirmative, I will stay outside while you do your business inside."

Tails then nodded his head and entered the shop. "It shouldn't take long." he said just before he entered.

With that, the door closed behind Tails.

Metal looked around. All around him, people were going about their business, going from place to place, their jobs, or simply to visit someone.

Metal noticed a couple of people were leaning against lamp posts or walls, like they were waiting for someone to come along, or something to get done. Metal decided to do his best to copy the position while he was waiting.

As he waited, he wondered if Sonic had times like this. Where he had to wait for his friends to arrive or finish doing an errand. It seemed pretty boring to Metal, but he supposed that's how it was with Sonic sometimes.

A short time later, he heard Tails converse with the clerk.

"You seem to be doing much better then the last time I saw you." He heard the clerk say.

"Uh, yeah." Tails replied. "I've kind of had some help."

"Oh, I assume some of your friends visited to help comfort you."

"Well, some have visited and called. It helped me a bit."

There was a pause before the clerk spoke again. "I am curious about one thing though, why is that robot waiting outside? Isn't he one of Eggman's robots?"

Metal froze and slowly turned his head towards the window. He saw that while the clerk appeared to be looking at Tails, he could see his eyes directed towards where Metal was.

Tails looked at him briefly. Metal could tell from his face that he was trying to come up with an explanation for why he was here.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain." Tails said shifting his eyes between Metal and the clerk. "But sometime after Sonic' funeral, he kind of appeared and said that he had split from Eggman."

The clerk tilted his head. "So you bought what he said just like that. Did you forget that he had acted on his own before?"

Metal looked away from the scene. Right now he was feeling nervous. He needed something to happen so it could get him out of the situation. Maybe Tails would pay the clerk so he could leave the store and he and Metal would be on their way.

Suddenly, Metal heard a cry from nearby.

"Hey, let go of my purse."

Metal turned his head in the exact direction of the voice and saw that a woman was trying to pull her purse away from a man who was trying to wrestle it from her grip.

The mugger then elbowed the woman in the stomach, momentarily stunning her and allowing him to take the purse and he began to run off with it.

Once the woman had recovered, she pointed in the direction that the mugger was running off to.

"Someone stop him!" She cried out. "He took my purse!"

Metal immediately turned towards the direction the mugger went, activated his thruster and began to charge towards him.

The mugger looked back to see if anyone his chasing him, and his eyes widened in terror as he saw Metal rapidly coming towards him. He tried to run faster in response, but Metal was still closing in.

Just as Metal was a few feet away from the mugger, his thruster suddenly died, causing him to suddenly hit the ground and roll for a bit before getting back on his feet. Where he began to pursue the mugger on foot.

While Metal's thruster was able to keep up with Sonic. Metal was still fast on his legs, able to sprint long distances without running out of power.

He soon closed the distance between him and the mugger, and he grabbed the mugger by the leg. This caused the mugger to trip and land face first on the sidewalk.

Rolling face up, he saw Metal looming over him. Glaring down at him with his red optics.

"Hand over the purse." Metal demanded. "I will not ask again."

"No." The mugger said in a defensive, but scared tone. "I'm not giving it to you."

"That was not a correct response." Metal said as he grabbed the purse with one hand, and the muggers arm with the other. He then began to tighten his grip on the arm.

The mugger screamed in pain as the bones in his arm broke, causing him to let go of the purse. Metal let go of the arm after that and pulled the arm holding the purse away from the mugger. He then walked away, leaving the mugger to grip his broken arm and whimper in pain.

As he walked back to the store, he saw that Tails was now outside with grocery bag in one arm. Having witnessed Metal run off and quickly paying the clerk to see what was going on.

Metal approached the woman and presented her purse to her. "Here is your purse." he said.

For a few seconds, the woman was hesitant to take it from Metal. But eventually, she grabbed it and ran away without a thank you.

Metal turned to Tails, who had a look of both annoyance, and slight anger.

Metal tilted his head. "Was that not a thing Sonic did?" He asked.

Tails opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it as he thought about what Metal did.

It was true that in between stopping Eggman, Sonic did stop the occasional petty crime. Whether it was a simple mugging or a store robbery, Sonic always took the chance at stopping small crime wherever he and Tails went.

"Your right, that is something Sonic did." Tails said sighing. "But I'm more bothered with how you did it."

Metal looked at him. "Explain." He said.

"Did you really need to break that persons arm?" Tails asked. "I thought you were going to kill him when I first saw it."

"Negative, I had decided I will not kill a human when I split off from Eggman." Metal stated. "And force was necessary as he would not relinquish the purse for return."

"You could have done it differently." Tails said. "Is breaking limbs always your first option when someone refuses to do what they want you to do?"

"Negative, I used to eliminate any threats that stood in the way of the objective." Metal replied. "Since my desertion from Eggman, I have been trying to look for other ways of dealing with a situation."

Tails sighed. "Well it looks like you still need work on that a bit." He replied.

They continued to make their way towards the town, making their way to the tools shop that Tails usually went to. Along the way, with Metal stopping the mugging being recent. They could hear the occasional mummer as they passed by.

"Isn't that Sonic's robotic copy?"

"Why did he even stop that mugger? Isn't he supposed to be evil?"

"Why is Tails with him?"

They did their best to ignore them. They had expected things like this.

Eventually, they reached the tools shop and Tails handed Metal the grocery bag.

"Hold this." He said to Metal as he went inside. "And don't go anywhere. Not even if you see another person getting mugged."

Metal waited outside with the grocery bag in hand. Since Tails appeared to be taking longer inside the tool store compared to the general store, it left him enough time to contemplate.

In the years he had served Eggman, he was no stranger to being told off. Eggman had done it multiple times whenever he had failed to do something. Although it was more over how he was stopped as Metal did his best to do the objective even if it ended with him being defeated.

However, this was the first time someone lectured him for his methods. For Metal, it did not matter how he did it, in the end all that mattered was doing the job. The fact that someone lectured him over how he did the job was something that was new to him.

Metal stared at the hand that broke the muggers arm. He knew that trying to convince others that he was a hero was not going to be easy, but he never thought he might have to change his methods along the way.

His thought process was interrupted by someone nudging him on his side.

"Metal, are you there?"

Looking down, he saw that Tails had exited the store and was trying to get his attention.

"Yes." he replied. "I was simply thinking about three things that related to my current situation."

"Oh." Tails said before he looked at the list. "Well, we got everything we need here. Let's head home."

The two then walked back to Tails' house with Metal carrying the groceries, and Tails carrying the bag of bolts and screws.

* * *

The next day, the two were in the hanger that the Tornado was in. Tails was performing maintenance on it while Metal was assisting him.

"Okay, now hand me the wrench." Tails said as he looked at an open panel on the side of the propeller.

Metal grabbed the wrench from the toolbox and handed it to Tails. "Here it is."

Tails then used the wrench to remove a component on the propeller.

As he did so, Metal decided to speak. "There is something I forgot to mention one the previous day." He said.

"What is it?" Tails asked as he worked on the plane.

"When I was chasing the mugger, I attempted to use my thruster to pursue him. However, it died out after exactly 6 seconds. Do you have an explanation for that?" Metal said.

Tails thought about it for a moment. "That does sound a bit concerning." Tails replied. "I'll check on you once I'm done with the Tornado."

Tails finally managed to remove the component and observed it. The component looked a bit rusted and worn from use. He turned to Metal, presenting the component to him.

"What do you think Metal?" He asked. "Does it need to be replaced?"

Metal analyzed the component for a few seconds before he gave his answer. "Judging from the wear and the visible rust on the component. I conclude that continued use of this component will result in complications when flying the plane in the future." He stated.

Tails stared at him for a few seconds before replying. "So, yes then."

Metal nodded his head. "Correct."

Tails stared at the component. "I have a spare of this in my workshop. I'll be right back."

Tails walked back to the house and entered his workshop. He then began to search the workshop for the component he needed. Eventually, he found the spare in one of the drawers.

Just as he was about to pick it up however, he heard a knock at the door, followed by a familiar voice.

"Tails? Tails, are you there?" Amy's voice asked.

Tails was confused at first over why Amy was here, then he remembered why.

'Oh right, Amy's visiting me today.' He thought.

Putting the component on a table, he ran out of the workshop and to the front door as Amy continued to knock. He opened the door, coming face to face with the pink hedgehog.

"Hi Amy." Tails said.

"Hi Tails." Amy replied. "May I come in?"

Tails briefly looked back before he replied. "Uh, sure." he said.

Amy entered the house and looked around for awhile while Tails went to get some water.

"So I haven't seen you in awhile." Amy said. "How are you?"

"Fine." Tails replied.

Amy looked at him in surprise. "Really? Because from what Silver told me from his visit, you were having a hard time dealing with what happened."

There was a pause before she said the last two words, as if she was trying to find the best way to word it so she wouldn't hurt Tails' feelings.

"You don't have to avoid saying it you know." Tails said as he poured another glass of water. "I know you're talking about Sonic' death."

Amy looked at him sadly. "Sorry, I just wasn't sure how you would react given that it sounded like it was a touchy subject for you."

Tails brought the two glasses of water to the living room and both he and Amy sat down on the couch. For awhile, none of them spoke, drinking their water in silence.

Finally Amy spoke. "So what have you been up to since Silver's visit?" She asked.

Tails thought about it, he knew he couldn't tell Amy about Metal Sonic since she wouldn't believe him. So he decided to go with a question that would at least be relevant for what he was about to do with Metal

"Well..." He began. "I've been trying to figure out where the Chaos Emeralds are, but it hasn't been easy, since I'm having a hard time figuring out where they are."

He turned to Amy. "You've had a bit more contact others then me right now. Do you know where the others are at the moment."

Amy thought about it for a moment. "Well, Knuckles is guarding 4 of the Chaos Emeralds on Angel Island. We're still trying to look for the other 3."

She then turned to Tails. "Why do you ask?"

"I've been thinking of going to find them." Tails answered. "Maybe help make sure they're safe in case Eggman tries to steal them again."

"I guess that makes sense." Amy replied. "Someone needs to make sure the emeralds are protected right now. Especially since Eggman hasn't been sighed recently."

Tails was silent for a moment. For a moment he wondered if he should tell Amy about how Eggman attacked him a few days ago. But that would mean that he would possibly need to tell her about Metal.

Amy then continued. "You seem to be doing better now then when Silver visited you a few days ago. How are you handling Sonic' death right now?"

Tails was quiet for another moment as he tried to figure out what he could tell Amy. Deciding to lie a bit he began to answer.

"About a day after Silver's visit, I called Shadow to visit me to help console me. I thought it made sense to call him as he lost someone as well."

"What did he say?" Amy asked.

Tails thought about what to say for a moment before he answered. "He told me that when Maria died, he missed her just like I did with Sonic. He also told me that sometimes, it's always best to keep moving on. Even if you want someone to come back."

Tails then looked at Amy. "You have that same feeling too don't you?" He asked.

There was a pause as Amy took her eyes off Tails and looked towards a picture on the wall. In the picture was a group picture with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy on it. They all looked so happy in the photo, completely unaware of the fate that would befall one of them.

"Yeah." Amy said lowering her head. "I still miss him too."

For a minute, neither of them spoke. Right now, they were having similar thoughts. The fact that the friend that they all knew and loved was gone, and was never coming back. They both knew they had to move on, but it wasn't easy when they've known him for most of their life.

"I've been trying to listen to what people say and move on." Tails said, breaking the silence. "But it's not easy for me."

Amy looked at Tails and put her hand on his shoulder. "You did know him the best. I understand why you're having a harder time moving on" She said.

Tails lowered his head though. "It's not just that though. There's something else that's been keeping me from moving on."

"What is it then?" Amy asked.

Before Tails could answer, they both heard the front door open.

Looking up, both of their faces took surprised expressions. Amy's being more so.

Metal Sonic was standing at the door, frozen where he was when he saw the scene.

"Did I interrupt something?" He asked.

For a long time, neither party moved. With neither of them not knowing what to do in this situation at first.

Amy reacted first however. Before Tails could even say something, she had her hammer out and was charging towards Metal. When she was close enough, she swung the hammer at Metal, hitting him in the face and knocking him to the floor.

Metal quickly dodged the second hammer strike by rolling away just before it hit him. Amy however, didn't let up and continued to try and hit him with the hammer.

Eventually, through all the evading, Metal ended up being cornered against a wall, and Amy was raising her hammer to hit him again.

Just before that happened however, Tails ran in between Metal and Amy.

"Amy wait." He said shielding Metal. "I can explain."

"Oh yes Tails." Amy cried out. "Please explain why Metal Sonic is here."

Tails looked back at Metal, who's back was still against the wall. He had hoped he would keep Metal a secret for awhile longer, hopefully until after they went on their journey for the emeralds and Metal had shown he could do good.

But now, Amy knew about Metal, and Tails' best option was to explain it as best as possible.

Tails sighed. "About a week after the funeral, Metal Sonic visited me and told me that he quit working for Eggman."

"And you believed him?" Amy asked incredulous.

"No, I didn't at first." Tails replied. "But after a few days, I saw that he really had changed and he's been helping me try to get through Sonic's death."

Amy didn't speak for a moment. She still kept her hammer ready, and was glaring at Metal. She wasn't sure whether or not to believe Tails, and the fact that Metal was there wasn't helping.

She finally spoke. "You are aware he's tried to kill us multiple times right?"

"I don't think he's gonna hurt any of us anymore." Tails quickly said. "Look, I'll show you."

He turned to Metal. "Metal, you're not going to attack Amy anymore right?"

Metal was silent for a moment, processing the question before he answered.

"The possibility of attacking Amy out of hate towards her is no longer an option for me." He stated.

Tails turned back to Amy, as if to say 'See, he's on our side now.'

Amy still didn't seem to buy it. "Okay, but you are aware he has worked on his own before?"

She then realized something. "Was this the reason why you asked me the current status of the emeralds? So Metal Sonic could get them for himself?"

"No!" Tails exclaimed. "He wants to look for them so they can be protected."

"Are you sure that's not a lie so he can take them by himself?" Amy said.

"He doesn't seem interested in doing that." Tails said.

Tails looked at Amy in desperation. "Please, you just haven't seen what's he's done recently. Just believe me."

Amy was silent at that. Her eyes switched between Metal Sonic and Tails, not knowing whether or not to believe what Tails was saying.

Finally, she lowered her hammer. "Look, maybe you're right and Metal Sonic has changed and I haven't seen it yet."

She then glared at Metal. "That doesn't mean I forgive him for what he's done before."

She then turned back to Tails. "You can keep him, but if he starts acting strangely, I want you to contact me immediately. Understand?"

Tails paused or a moment before he answered with a nod. "I understand."

Amy put her hammer away and began to walk towards the door. Just before she left, she turned her head towards Tails.

"It was nice to talk to you again Tails." She said.

Tails looked away from her slightly. "It was nice seeing you again too."

Amy then left, closing the door behind her.

Metal and Tails were quiet for about a minute before Tails turned to Metal.

"Why did you go into the house?" Tails asked Metal. "I thought I told you to stay in the hanger."

"You were taking a long time to get the necessary component." Metal responded. "I went to investigate why you were taking you so long. I did not expect that Amy Rose would be there."

"Yeah well, you were lucky that that she didn't destroy you." Tails replied.

"I expected her not to react well to my presence given my previous actions. Yet I did not expect her to react violently to me."

Tails sighed. "I guess you should be lucky I can repair you if you get damaged." He said.

"That is correct." Metal replied.

"I'm gonna go get that component for the plane." Tails said walking back to the entrance to the workshop. "You go back to the hanger and see if there's anything else I might need to replace."

"Affirmative." Metal responded.

Tails entered the workshop and walked back to the table where he put the plane component. Before he picked it up though, he stared at it in silence.

Just like Metal, he knew that no one was going to believe him over Metal turning good at first. He was their enemy for years, of course they wouldn't buy him suddenly turning good.

Yet, despite Amy showing the expected reaction to Metal, he felt hurt by it. While he felt comfortable with talking to Amy about Sonic. He felt that Metal was more helpful in getting through his grief.

He knew that the people who saw Metal had good reasons to be suspicious of him, but they seemed to be unable to see that he had changed.

He sighed and picked up the component and began to walk out of the workshop.

'It's still pretty early for them to see that he's changed.' Tails thought as he walked. 'Hopefully they'll eventually see he's really changed and wants to help others.'


	11. Journey's Beginning

**Author's Note :** _Well, it's certainly been awhile since I updated this._

 _However, this delay wasn't because I was lazy, I just simply had other things going on in my life. For one I was busy writing and publishing the first four chapters of another story I had been planning for awhile, The Beast Inside, which is now available to read here. Another reason being that college has been kind of hard for me recently, and I had to work pretty hard, so it kind of gave me little time to write this chapter._

 _But enough rambling, hopefully this chapter was worth the wait._

* * *

Tails took one more look inside his bag to make sure everything was there. Inside the bag, there were a few apples, granola bars for food, and a couple of sandwiches. There was also the folded up blueprints for Metal, alongside some screws, nuts and bolts. Finally there was a roll bag filled with various tools.

'Okay, that should be everything I needed.' He thought as he closed it.

He put the bag over his shoulder, grabbed the Miles Electric that was on the desk, and began to walk towards the door. Once he was outside he stopped and looked around for a moment.

It had dawned on him that this was the first time he was going to leave the area he was in since the funeral. Aside from going to the nearby town for supplies every now and then, for almost three weeks, he hadn't left the area around his own home.

Now, after all that, he was going back into the world again to try and save it. Only this time, instead of Sonic coming along, it was his robotic copy.

It almost very hard to believe for the fox. Just weeks ago, Metal was an enemy of his, someone who would not hesitate to kill him. But now, Metal was fighting Eggman to protect him.

He had figured that Sonic' death probably had something to do with this change, given that Metal had witnessed Sonic' death. But Tails was still surprised that Metal had changed his ways and was now trying to help him.

He continued to walk to the hanger and as he got closer, he saw that Metal was near the plane looking at two objects that were in his hands.

"Hey Metal." Tails said as he approached him. The fact that he could stay that to Metal without being attacked by him still shocked him a little.

"Hello Tails." Metal replied. "I have a question I need to ask you."

"Sure, what is it?"

Metal presented the items he was holding. One of them looked like a prop arm that was made of cloth, the other was a helmet with a plastic visor on the front. "Do you have an explanation to why these items are here? I do not see any necessary for them for the task ahead."

"Oh that's simple." Tails said. "It's for practice to train you."

Metal tilted his head. "Practice? I can fight and move perfectly well. I do not see any further practice as necessary."

"Well, it's actually practice on how you do things." Tails explained. "You see, I don't think breaking a persons arm when you stop them from doing something bad should be your default method of taking someone down."

"I do not see your point. Giving a criminal an injury could minimize their chances of doing something bad."

Tails sighed. "I don't think you paid attention with how others reacted to you. But I did, and I saw that people were a bit disturbed by it." He explained. "So I decided that we might work on other methods you could use while we search for the chaos emeralds."

He turned back to Metal. "Does that answer your question?"

"Affirmative." Metal responded, nodding.

Tails gave a small smile. "Then lets go find the three Chaos Emeralds."

He then walked towards the tornado, but before he boarded, he stopped and turned to Metal.

"Oh, and just remember, you're going to have to fly on my on the tornado for now." Tails said "You're thruster is still not fully repaired, so don't use it for extensive periods."

Metal nodded. "I understand."

"And if you do use it, don't use it for more then 5 seconds." Tails added. "Any longer and the thruster starts to malfunction."

"I will keep that in mind." Metal said. "Now can we prepare to leave for the task at hand?"

"Right." Tails said climbing up onto the tornado, with Metal following soon after.

Just before Tails started the plane, he noticed a photo next to the controls. He stopped and stared at it for a moment.

The photo contained Sonic next to Tails, giving a grin and a thumbs up, while Tails himself was giving a small smile.

Tails felt some sadness as he stared at the picture. For a moment, he wondered if he was emotionally well enough to do this. After all, this was the first time he was going on an adventure without Sonic by his side. And he was still feeling some grief from his death.

While Metal had managed to help him recover enough, he still missed Sonic. He felt like he couldn't move on from his death.

Especially since there was one part of the events leading to his death that he just couldn't let go of.

"Tails." Metal asked staring at him. Tails didn't hear him at first as he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Tails." Metal repeated, still not getting his attention.

Metal then climbed behind where Tails was seated, and gave him a small poke.

That seemed to snap him out of it, as he turned to Metal in surprise.

"Are you going to fly the plane or not?" Metal asked.

"Uh, yeah I am." Tails said turning back to the controls as he began to start the plane. "Sorry about that, I just spaced out there for a moment."

Tails put in the coordinates of the nearest emerald and began to steer the plane out of the hanger. Soon enough, the Tornado took off and the two were off on their journey.

* * *

As the plane flew Metal looked down and watched the ground below, looking at the landscape as it passed by below him.

Metal was no stranger to flying, he had flown using his thruster multiple times. But he had never paid attention to the ground below him while he did so. For him, unless the objective was right beneath him, whatever was below him when he was flying was unimportant.

But now, with little things to do at the moment, he decided to observe the ground below. As he stared down at it, he never realized how much larger the ground was in the air compared to when he was on the ground. The fields, houses and cars looked like toys when he was observing them from this high up.

It fascinated him with this observation. The fact that when he was in the air, everything on the ground seemed much smaller in comparison.

They continued flying for a few hours, with Tails occasionally looking at the Miles Electric to see how much further they had to fly, while Metal simply observed and analyzed things that were around him.

Eventually they reached the area that the emerald was detected in.

"We're close to the search area." Tails said turning to Metal. "I'm gonna find a place to land."

"Affirmative." Metal replied. "I will figure out the location of the Chaos Emerald once we land."

Tails flew around for a few minutes, trying to find a place to land. Eventually he found a place to land the plane and brought the plane down, finally coming to a stop.

Metal got out first, and began to use his emerald radar. While Tails had restored most of his functions, there were some that still weren't working quite right. His emerald radar, which was supposed to give him the exact location of the emerald and how far it was from where he was, was only giving him the general direction the emerald was in.

Right now, he detected the emerald was approximately 122 degrees southeast of where they were right now. He couldn't tell how far he and Tails currently were, so he was going to have to rely on Tails' Miles Electric for the exact location.

Just then however, he detected something that was about to attack him from behind. Quickly turning around he grabbed whatever was about to attack him. Tightening his grip on it, he then heard a snap.

"You just broke someones arm."

Metal stopped for a moment as he realized he was looking at Tails, who was wearing a helmet. Turning his head towards what he grabbed, he realized it was the stuffed cloth arm.

Metal was confused by this. According to the analysis he made back at the hanger, the stuffed arm should not have had anything in it that caused that snapping sound.

"Can you let go of the arm Metal?" Tails asked.

Metal took another glance at the arm before repsonding. "Affirmative." He said, letting go of the arm.

Tails brought the arm towards him and unzipped it. Ruffling through it for a bit, he then brought out a broken bundle of sticks.

"Good thing I brought more of these." Tails said as he tossed the stick bundle aside and took off his helmet.

"Why did you not warn me of your attack?" Metal asked.

"Well, I was going to, but I decided to see how good your reaction time was." Tails explained as he removed the helmet. "Judging from how quickly you grabbed the arm, it's still pretty quick."

"It was not necessary though." Metal replied. "My system diagnostic that I performed just before we left showed that it was functioning perfectly. Now can we perform the task we came to do."

"Right." Tails said getting the Miles Electric out. "The emerald should be southeast from where we are right now."

Metal nodded. "I can conform that is true. Now let us get moving."

They then began to walk. For awhile, they walked in silence, following the direction that the emerald was in. The clear fields they walked through eventually gave way to forests.

Tails then broke the silence. "Metal, I have a question to ask you." He said.

Metal turned his head towards Tails. "What is is that you have to ask me?"

"If Eggman had that shock restraint on you when he attacked my home, Why didn't he use it when you were attacking his robots?" Tails asked.

Metal looked away for a moment. "I can only make two conclusions to that. Either he waited for me to destroy his robots before he used it, or he considers the robots he sent expendable and the restraint is only used when I try to attack him." He answered.

Tails thought about it. "I guess that does make sense." He said. "If I go with the first explanation, Eggman has toyed with Sonic before he sprung a trap on him. As for the second, it's not like Eggman cared for robots like the ones you destroyed. So he knew you could take them and waited until you destroyed them to reveal that restraint."

"Perhaps." Metal replied. "But I know that in the inevitable scenario that I encounter Eggman again, I would need help as the restraint would prevent me from attacking Eggman."

"Well if it's just us, I might be able to hold Eggman off on my own. I've done it a few times without Sonic." Tails said. "But if you're going to fight Eggman by yourself, we're going to have to find out where that restraint is and remove it."

"And how are you going to find it?" Metal replied. "Eggman mentioned that he did not put them on my blueprints."

"Well, maybe like the tracker he made it so it was unidentifiable." Tails said hopefully. "Maybe a blinking light or his logo."

"That would not fit with his thinking when he installed the restraint." Metal responded. "If he did not put it in the blueprints, then I am certain that he did not make it obvious."

"It was a joke Metal." Tails sighed. "You really need to learn to identify one."

They continued to walk for another hour. They occasionally talked, but it was mostly in silence.

In that silence however, Metal could see that Tails was still feeling some sadness from Sonic' death. Despite improving since he started trusting him, Metal could still tell Tails missed Sonic. He could also tell that there was something bothering him about his death. Something he couldn't let go of.

Metal recalled when he confronted Tails at his workshop after Silver's visit. After Tails broke down, he said something as he cried.

" _It's_ _all_ _my fault. It's my fault that he died."_

He understood that Tails seemed to blame himself for Sonic' death. But he did not know why. He saw that Sonic made the choice to sacrifice himself on his own. So why was Tails blaming himself for his death?

Before Metal could ask him about it, Tails stopped.

"Why are you stopping?" Metal asked.

"We're getting close to the emerald." Tails replied. "It's a few yards away right now."

Metal stopped. He had been so caught up in his thoughts that he forgot about the emerald for a moment.

"Then let us keep moving." Metal responded.

They did so. As they got closer, Metal felt like there was something else that was up ahead.

It did not take Metal long to come to a logical conclusion. Eggman had sent him to find the chaos emeralds before he went rogue. With him no longer working for Eggman, there was no doubt that he would do something else about it.

Activating his scanner as he closed the distance between them and the emerald, he began scanning for any threats.

Just as Tails was about to proceed further, Metal stopped him by bringing his arm in front of him.

"Hey!" Tails said, surprised. "What gives?"

"I am detecting several Eggman robots up ahead." He replied. "Right where the Chaos Emerald is located."

Tails' eye's widened. "How many of them are there?"

"Seven." Metal responded.

Tails then began to run towards where the emerald was. With Metal following behind him.

"Tails wait..." Metal said as he ran.

Eventually, he caught up to Tails, who was now hiding behind a rock and peeking out slightly to see what was happening.

Metal did so as well. He saw that the seven robots he had detected were patrolling the area, searching for any threats.

However, both his and Tails' eyes soon fell on a metal dome that was in the center of the surrounding robots, and containing the red chaos emerald in a glass dome on top of it.

"How did Eggman's robots get here?" Tails asked quietly.

"I foresaw this happening." Metal responded. "Once I stopped following his orders, he would use other means of collecting the emeralds. Such as his own robots."

Tails took another look around. "Well, if there are only seven of them, we can take them."

Metal glared at him. "Are you forgetting of the possibility that I might not be able to fight them because of the restraint in me?"

"You said that the restraint meant that you weren't going to be able to attack Eggman himself. I don't think it would extend to his robots." Tails added.

"But what if it does? How would we be able to retrieve the emerald if I am unable to fight them?" Metal said.

Tails gave Metal an annoyed look. "You are aware I can handle myself right? I don't think a few robots would be a problem to me."

"And besides." He added. "Even if you can't fight the robots, you can focus on getting the emerald. That is what we're here for after all."

Metal turned back to the robots and the emerald. All that stood between them and the emerald were those seven robots. It all seemed so simple. But Metal knew that Eggman usually had something else planned in case something went wrong.

But the emerald was right there, and he had no idea how much longer these robots were going to going to remain here. If they were going to get the emerald, they needed to act soon.

"Then I will have to see if my restraint does extend to Eggmans robots." Metal finally said. "If I am unable to attack them, you must handle the robots on your own."

Tails was silent for a moment before he nodded. "Okay." He said.

Metal then came out behind the rock they were hiding from and leaped towards one of the robots, using his thruster to close the distance between them.

He then slashed downward at the robot using his claws, slicing the front of the robot as he landed on the ground. Looking up at the robot, he watched it wobble for a few seconds before it collapsed on the ground.

It took a moment for Metal to realize that he didn't feel any electrical shock when he attacked the robot. Neither before or after he hit the robot.

It appeared that Tails was correct, the restraint did not extend to Eggman's robots.

He did not have time to consider the results though. There were still six robots that he had to deal with, as well as the retrieval of the chaos emerald.

Metal then began to charge at the next robot, ramming his fist through it and disabling the robot. Moving closer to where the emerald was as he did so.

Another robot fired at him from the side, Metal managed to detect it and dodge the blast just before it hit him. It instead hit the a tree that was next to him, causing a branch to fall down next to Metal.

Noticing it, and concluding that the thickness of the branch and the point that was created from the blast was a good enough to use as a weapon. He grabbed the branch and aimed it at the robot. Throwing it with the right amount of strength, the robot was impaled through the chest by the branch before Metal continued on.

He reached the dome and did a quick analysis of the glass surrounding the emerald. The glass was tough, but it was breakable with the right amount of force applied to it.

Stepping back a few feet, he brought his fist back and activated his thruster. After about a second, he charged towards the dome and just as he was close, he brought his fist towards the dome.

Once he hit the dome, the glass shattered into several pieces, and causing the emerald to drop to the ground. Metal managed to grab it just before it did so.

Metal took a moment to analyze it, just to make sure it was not a fake emerald. After a few seconds, he got the results, confirming that the emerald was real.

However as he analyzed the emerald, a robot was charging from behind him, and was about to strike. Just as Metal detected him though, he head a crash and he turned around.

Much to his surprise, the robot was now on the ground, with Tails standing over it.

"You alright?" Tails asked walking over to Metal.

"I am fine." Metal responded. "I thank you for dealing with the robot, but there are still 3 more robots in the area."

"You really think so?" Tails asked, giving a small smile.

"Correct, I had destroyed three of the robots, and you have destroyed one. Therefore, there are still three robots left."

Tails gave a small laugh. "Why don't you take a look around, Metal."

Metal looked around, noticing the robots he had defeated. But as he looked around, to his surprise, he noticed the three robots he claimed were remaining were destroyed and in pieces.

Metal turned back to Tails in surprise. "How did you.."

"I told you I could handle myself." Tails said. "Now do you have the emerald?"

Metal brought the emerald up and showed it to Tails. "I have it."

"Good, we just need to find the other two and we can get them to Angel Island so Knuckles can protect them."

Just before Metal could speak, both heard something behind them.

Turning around, they saw a red eye that was now shining in front of the metal dome. Seconds later, four legs began to emerge from the sides of the dome, and it began to rise from the ground.

A gun then emerged from the bottom of the dome turned robot, aiming at the two tailed fox and the robotic hedgehog.

Tails then felt Metal grab his arm and managed to pull him away just before the robot fired it's gun. As it fired the gun, it tracked where Metal was going, turning the gun to follow him.

Spotting a rock that was large enough to cover both him and Tails, Metal dragged Tails towards it, using his thruster to get there quicker. Once they were behind the rock, Metal noticed that a bullet had slightly chipped his left shoulder.

"Why did that dome turn into a robot?" Tails asked Metal as the bullets hit the rock they were hiding behind. "How did you not detect that before it activated?"

"I did not detect any activity before the robot activated." Metal responded. "Eggman must have activated it remotely for either extraction once the emerald was secure or if we decided to retrieve it so it could eliminate us."

"Well, you're going to do what Sonic usually does right? Defeat the robot."

"Affirmative, but I will need to wait until the robot stops firing before I can attempt to attack it as by my analysis, the robot appears to be equipped with armor piercing bullets."

After about a minute, the bullets stopped hitting the rock behind them. Seeing his chance, Metal exited the rock and began to charge towards the robot.

However, just as he was about to attack it, the robot was suddenly besieged with fire that came from the side. Ranging from missiles to bolts of energy.

Withing seconds, the robot was destroyed and left Metal confused by the situation.

Tails came out from behind the rock, walking up next to Metal. Equially surprised at what had happened.

"Where did that come from?" Tails asked as he stared at the now destroyed robot.

"I am not sure." Metal responded. "But I detected bursts of chaos energy in those blasts."

"Wait, chaos energy?" Tails asked, surprised at that fact."

"Well, this is quite unexpected." A new voice suddenly said.

Metal and Tails turned to direction the voice came from and saw the people who saved them.

Standing on the ledge that they observed from, were Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega.

* * *

 **Authors Note: **_With me now writing two stories, here's what the release is gonna be like, A chapter of The Beast Inside, and A chapter of The Metallic Replacement. Sounds easy enough to understand. And as I stated in the profile page, Chapter's will be released when they're done so please be patient._

 _See you next time._


	12. A Walk With Rouge

**Authors Note:** _Well well, look whats back. Usual excuse for delays, college, work, real life, etc._

 _Also The Metallic Replacement has reached 50 favorites and is almost to 10,000 views, which I honestly never expected. I'm surprised over how popular this story is._

 _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._

* * *

For a moment, neither party moved from where they were. Both were a bit surprised by the others presence, though in different ways.

The silence was broken when Shadow turned to Omega. "Are there any more threats?"

"I have detected one." Omega stated aiming his cannon at Metal Sonic. "Eliminating now."

Just before Omega was fired at Metal, Tails ran in front of Metal.

"NO!" Tails yelled, shielding Metal from Omega's sights. "Don't hurt him!"

Shadow and Rouge were surprised by this. "What?" Rouge quietly said.

"Tails, you do realize who you're protecting?" Shadow asked, in disbelief that Tails was protecting Metal.

"I know who he is." Tails answered. "But just hear me out for a moment, he's not gonna hurt you."

"That's likely." Shadow yelled back. "He's probably holding you hostage and making you shield him to protect himself."

'No he didn't.' Tails angrily thought. 'He would never ask me to do that the way he is right now.'

"Please move out of the way child." Omega stated. "I am unable to fire at the threat with you in the way."

"Tails, get out of the way!" Shadow yelled.

"Just look at him." Tails yelled back. "Does it look like he's holding me hostage?"

Shadow simply glared at Tails in response.

They were now in a stalemate. Neither of them was backing down and Omega still had his cannon ready.

During all this, Metal stood where he was. Unable to do anything as it could possibly result in him getting destroyed by Omega.

Just then, Rouge spoke. "Stand down Omega."

Omega turned to her. "But there is still..."

"I know, but stand down for now." She interrupted.

She then walked to Shadow and got out a pair of cuffs. "Put these around Metal Sonic."

Shadow stared at them. "You do realize he can break through these right?" He said.

"Then you and Omega watch him." She added. "If he tries anything funny, take him out."

"Can I still eliminate him if he does anything?" Omega asked.

"Only if he tries anything suspicious while I'm gone." Rouge said, crossing her arms. "Otherwise, watch him until I get back."

"You're not going to help guard him?" Shadow asked. "Why?"

She turned to Tails. "I think me and Tails need to have a talk."

She then glided down to where Tails was and walked over to him. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

Tails turned to Metal. "Don't worry." He said, trying his best to reassure him. "I'll be fine, just wait for me to get back."

"Affirmative." Metal responded. "I will await your return."

He then brought out the Chaos Emerald, handing it to Tails. "Keep an eye on this."

Tails nodded before walking over to Rouge, and the two walked off. As they did, Shadow approached Metal and slapped the cuffs on him. He then suddenly pulled Metal close to his face using the chain in the cuffs.

"Listen here." Shadow growled. "Tails isn't here to protect you now. So if you try anything I find remotely funny, I won't hesitate to destroy you myself."

Omega then walked up to Metal. "I am also keen on destroying you."

"So for right now, you're going to sit here until Rouge gets back. Understand?"

Metal looked at Shadow for a moment before giving a small nod.

Shadow then dragged Metal to a tree stump and had him sit down before letting go of the chain on the cuffs. Omega joined Shadow's side later, leaving them to wait for Rouge to return.

* * *

Elsewhere, Tails and Rouge were walking through the forest. None of them had spoke since they had begun.

"So, I haven't seen you in awhile." Rouge finally said. "I honestly didn't expect you to be here."

"Neither did I." Tails replied. "What exactly were you doing here anyway?"

"Well we got reports of Eggman's robots doing some activity in the area, and since we've been given free reign on anything Eggman related, we decided to investigate." Rouge said. "Thought I really didn't expect that all except one of the robots to be destroyed, much less you being here."

She then turned to Tails. "What exactly are you doing here anyway?"

"Well, I detected a Chaos Emerald around here and I decided to retrieve it." Tails explained. "I was surprised to find that Eggmans robots were there as well."

"Well, glad you're okay." Rouge replied.

There was a few seconds of silence. Tails had noticed Rouge didn't mention Metal when she brought up how he was already there.

"How have you been dealing with it?" He then asked.

Rouge took a second to figure out what Tails meant by that before she answered.

She sighed and looked down a bit. "I might not have interacted with Sonic as much as you, Knuckles, and Amy have." she said. "But I was still shocked and sad when I heard the news of his death."

"But you've been doing your best to move on from him, haven't you?" Tails asked.

Rouge nodded. "I am, but it's still a bit odd that I'm now doing Sonic's job."

"What about Shadow?" Tails asked. "Does he miss Sonic?"

Rouge looked at him with a small smile. "Yeah he does. He doesn't show it much, but he has told me he misses him."

"So, I'll take it he's been dealing with it easier."

Rouge gave a small chuckle. "I guess you could say that. Not surprising considering his past experience with this sort of thing."

Tails only gave a small nod. He knew that Shadow had had a very similar experience with Maria years ago.

"To be honest Rouge, I've been trying to move on from Sonic." Tails said sadly. "People have been telling me to do that, and offered to help me. But it just feels like everyone else has moved on from his death except for me."

"Don't worry honey." Rouge said, patting Tails on the head. "I know it's harder for you since you knew him the longest. Even becoming a brother to him. But I do know you'll get through this."

'If I eventually stop blaming myself for his death.' Tails thought.

Tails looked down. "I really hope so." he quietly said.

"Now." Rouge said as they both stopped walking. "Why exactly was Metal with you?"

Tails sighed, he knew this was eventually going to come up.

"Well." He started. "It's a long story."

* * *

Meanwhile, Shadow and Omega were guarding the handcuffed Metal Sonic.

With the threat of destruction if he did anything suspicious, Metal was left with nothing to do but sit and wait for Tails and Rouge to come back.

Metal stared at the cuffs that were around his wrists. Shadow was indeed correct with his statement that Metal could break out of the cuffs. From his analysis, the chain between them was made of a metal that with with enough force, would break apart.

If he was still working for Eggman, Metal would simply break the cuffs and escape while Shadow and Omega were distracted. But now, he had to sit and wait for Tails to return.

He looked at the two people that were guarding him. Shadow was just simply looking around for anything. Omega was doing the same too, but he did take moments to occasionally glare at him.

Metal knew that many of Sonic' friends probably would not think that he had turned good. But the way Omega was acting, he could tell that the robot had a particular mistrust towards him.

"I can see you do not like me." Metal stated to Omega.

Omega turned towards Metal. "That is correct. I do not even like you, I hate you." He stated.

"I am not surprised, given my own previous actions." Metal said. "With me working with Eggman."

"Correct. You were created by Eggman and worked with him for years. Therefore, you are considered a threat."

"But now you and I have something in common. You just haven't realized it yet." Metal replied. "In between Sonic's death and our recent encounter, I have split with Eggman."

"That is not good enough evidence that you are not a threat." Omega stated. "You have worked on your own before. I remember the Metal Overlord incident very well."

"That is true, I have worked against you alone. But this time, I plan stopping Eggman."

"I fail to see how we are now similar." Omega said. "You are most likely trying to manipulate me in freeing you and failing."

"I must ask you this though." Metal said. "Why did you turn against Eggman? I recall him building you shortly after Shadow's fall."

"I was meant to be a killing machine, the greatest of the E-100 series." Omega answered. "But instead, he sent me to an abandoned facility to guard Shadow while he was in stasis. Wasting my potential I swore the rest of my existence would be spent getting revenge of the doctor and the rest of his creations, including you."

"And yet you can't destroy me right now." Metal said. "Because you are ordered not to for now."

"Correct." Omega said. "I would have blown you up earlier if the fox wasn't in the way. Returning my point earlier, even after we defeated you and Eggman reclaimed you. You continued to serve him."

Metal looked down. "I am not going to convince you that I'm good now am I?" He said.

"Negative. You will wait until Rouge returns to decide your fate."

"Very well." Metal responded, with a tone that sounded like he accepted defeat.

He hoped that Tails was managing to convince Rouge that he had turned good.

* * *

Back with Tails and Rouge, Tails had just finished telling Rouge his story.

"So Metal went to you, said he had changed, you believed him after a few days, and now you're looking for the remaining Chaos Emeralds." Rouge said, trying her best to summarize what Tails had told her.

"Well, I guess you can put it like that." Tails replied.

"Tails, you've probably been asked this before, but have you considered that Metal might be tricking you into getting the rest of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"I did consider that." Tails said. "I didn't want to believe that he's truly good now, but I think he's on our side now."

Rouge sighed and rubbed her head. "Tails, I'm not going to act like it's impossible for a robot created by Eggman to be on our side. Omega is proof that it's possible." She said. "But, this is the same Metal Sonic we're talking about right? The robot Eggman specifically created to defeat Sonic."

"It's a bit crazy I know." Tails replied. "But you just haven't seen his recent actions. He fought Eggman when he attacked us and stopped someone stealing a purse when we visited a town."

"Well why did he turn against Eggman?" Rouge asked "Have you asked him about that?"

Tails thought about it. "Well, he did say he witnessed Sonic sacrifice himself and it changed him when he first broke into his home. But I never really asked him why he did so."

"You said you didn't believe that he was good at first." Rouge pointed out. "Why did you even let him into your house after he saved you from those bullies you mentioned?"

Tails was silent at that, but his facial expression became sadder. His breath also became a bit more shaky, almost like he was about to cry.

"Because..." He stammered. "Because I couldn't stand being alone with no one else to talk to anymore."

He looked down at the ground. "I just needed someone to vent my emotions at."

"Then why didn't you call any of us?" Rouge asked, her voice now a bit calmer. "We could've helped you get through your grief easier."

"I didn't want to accidentally say something that might hurt you." Tails answered. "I thought that if I did, I would push the others away."

Tears then started to roll down his face. "I didn't think Metal would care about how I felt." He said. "I probably never would've been here if it weren't for him"

Rouge then walked over and gave Tails a small hug.

"It's alright." She quietly said. "I know it harder for you to move past Sonic. But you'll get though this."

She then let go of Tails, who was now calming down, wiping away the tears from his eyes.

"Come on." Rouge said. "Let's go back to Shadow and Omega."

They then began to walk back to where Shadow, Omega and Metal were.

* * *

Shadow looked around as he waited for Rouge to return. He had heard Metal's conversation with Omega and was thinking about him.

He didn't believe that Metal had turned good. He had served Eggman for years, attacked, and nearly killed them multiple times. It seemed a bit suspicious that Metal suddenly turned good and was with Tails, who seemed to trust him.

He looked back at Metal, who was right now lightly tapping the handcuff with his knee.

"Hey." He said, glaring at Metal. "Remember what I said about what would happen to you trying anything suspicious."

Metal looked at him and immediately stopped messing with his chain.

Shadow looked away from Metal and shook his head. This whole situation seemed bizarre. He knew that Tails grieving for Sonic. Something he understood full well, as he had to do so as well. While he had managed to get over his grief quicker, he still missed him.

As much as he didn't say it, he wouldn't be who he was if it weren't for Sonic. He wouldn't have saved the world and kept his promise to Maria if he wasn't around.

Deep down, he regretted not thanking Sonic for what he did before he died.

He then heard footsteps. Looking up, he saw that Tails and Rouge had returned from their walk.

"Hello Shadow." Rouge said before she looked at Metal. "Did he give you any trouble?"

"He messed with the handcuffs a bit and had a talk with Omega, but other then that, he was quiet." He answered.

He then looked at Metal. "What do you want to do with him?"

Rouge was silent for a moment. She look at Metal for a few seconds before looking at Tails.

She then sighed. "Let Metal go." She said in a tone that secretly said, I can't believe I'm saying this.

Shadow was surprised. "What?" He asked. "You're letting him go? You are aware of who..."

"I'm aware, just remove the handcuffs from him." Rouge said.

"You mean, I cannot destroy him?" Omega asked.

"No!" Rouge exclaimed. "Just let him go."

Shadow gave out a sigh through his nose and walked over to Metal. He got the key out and unlocked the cuffs.

Metal stood up and walked over to Tails. "Do you still have the emerald?" He asked Tails.

Tails got the emerald out and showed it to him, nodding.

"Then let's go."

They began to walk towards the direction that the tornado landed. But Rouge suddenly grabbed Metal's shoulder.

Metal turned his head to look at her, and saw her glaring at him.

"Listen here." She said quietly. "Don't make me regret this. It's clear Tails has put a lot of trust in you, and you better not do anything to him."

She then leaned closer. "If you end up harming Tails in any way. I will make sure you get sent back to Eggman as a box of scraps. Understood?"

Metal paused for a moment before he nodded.

"Good." She said letting go of his shoulder. "Good luck on getting the rest of the emeralds."

Metal walked over to Tails, using his thruster to scale the cliff, and he and Tails walked off as Rouge watched.

Shadow then walked over to her. "Please don't tell me Tails convinced you that Metal had turned good." He said.

She shook her head. "I'm still suspicious over him. But judging from how Tails has improved since the funeral, I think he might be right."

"Well you might say that now, but you're just letting him go." Shadow pointed out. "If Metal does something to him, we wouldn't have any idea what happened."

"We'll keep an eye on him." Rouge responded.

"How? We have to also deal with Eggman's robot attacks. Which seem to be increasing in frequency."

"You really don't think I'd let Metal go with just a warning?" Rouge said as she brought out a device from her pocket. "I slipped a tracker under his shoulder when I stopped him. So we can keep an eye on him no matter where we go."

Shadow watched the screen of the device. It showed a map of where they currently were with a small dot traveling across the map.

"Nice job being cautious at least." Shadow said.

"Come on." Rouge said putting the device away. "Let's head back to base."

"What exactly are we going to say about Metal and Tails being here?" Shadow asked.

Rouge sighed. "Let's not exactly mention that. I have a feeling Tails has had enough on his mind at the moment."

* * *

Tails and Metal eventually reached where the Tornado was.

"Okay." Tails sighed. "I'm going to do some maintenance on you, then I'm going get some rest."

Metal looked at him. "You are going to get some rest? Are you aware that Eggman could possibly be on the hunt for the emeralds given our recent encounter?"

"I've thought about that." Tails replied. "But if we do have to face him, I want to be tried. I also think you should be at your best when we do face him again."

"But I will be unable to fight him because of my restraint." Metal pointed out. "Which means you will need to fight him alone if it is just the two of us."

Tails shrugged. "I can probably handle him, I've fought him alone a few times."

Metal looked away slightly. "That is correct, I remember reading reports of you doing so. But I fear you might not be prepared for whatever Eggman has planned."

"Well it doesn't have to be just us." Tails said. "We could ask others to help us."

"That is if you manage to convince them." Metal stated. "And if the encounters with Amy, Shadow, and Omega indicate, it will not be easy."

"Well I think Rouge bought it." Tails pointed out. "Why else would she let you go?"

Metal looked down. "You are a fair point, but I do not think she would let me go that easily."

Tails walked over to Metal and sighed. "Look, maybe we can worry about that when the time comes. Let's just focus on getting the rest of the emeralds for now."

Metal processed that for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I believe that is most important right now."

Tails gave a small smile. "Okay, now stand still. I'm going to get my tools."

He walked over to the tornado and got the bag of tools out, along side a few screws.

Once he got the appropriate tools out, he began to unscrew the back of Metal. As he did so he thought about what Rouge said.

" _Why did he turn against Eggman? Have you asked him about that?_ "

Tails paused for a moment, trying to think of a time when he asked Metal why he turned against Eggman. But he couldn't think of any.

He thought about asking Metal the question now. He need to know why Metal turned against Eggman.

He opened his mouth to ask, but quickly closed it, unsure of what to say at the moment.

Metal turned his head at Tails. "Tails, are you alright?"

"Oh." He said with surprise as he began to took out the last screw. "Sorry, just got lost in my thoughts for a moment"

He then removed the back panel and began to get to work. He decided to wait on asking that question, maybe once he was done with his nap.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _And that's it for the chapter, as per usual, chapters will be released when they are completed._

 _See you next time, whenever that might be._


	13. Why You Left

**Authors Note:** _Merry Christmas, here's my present for you._

 _I apologize for the massive delay, I kind of had a minor case of writers block that slowed the writing of chapter significantly. Also I had some college work, so that helped delay writing as well._

 _Also, this story has reached **10,000** views, which I cannot thank you enough for._

 _Anyway, enjoy the chapter._

* * *

He dreamed he was back at the funeral. He was standing at where they lowered Sonic's coffin. As he watched it, he tried his best to keep his composure.

He tried to avoid looking at it, thinking that if he didn't see it, Sonic would be still alive. However, even though he was staring at the ground instead of the coffin, he still couldn't get what happened out of his mind.

Standing near the tornado, holding the Miles Electric, as he head the last words his brother would say to him.

" _I'm sorry Tails._ "

Then, seconds later, seeing the explosion in the distance. At the time, he prayed it wasn't the worst case scenario. The moment he saw Sonic's communicator activated, it gave him a small hope that he was alive. But as he got no response, he began to realize the awful truth.

His brother was dead.

But he also thought about the events leading up to his death. When the tortuse shot the tornado as he was analyzing it, he was focused on landing safely that he didn't have time to analyze the robot properly. When he heard Sonic ask how long he had before the energy that was powering the robot explodes, he realized something.

Tears began to well in his eyes and his hands shook as he began to realize something relating to his death.

Turning away from where the coffin was, he ran away from it. Not wanting to be around where his brother was being laid to rest. Once he was sure he was far enough, he began to cry.

As he cried, he heard a couple of pairs of footsteps come from behind him.

Looking back, he saw that Knuckles and Amy had followed him, both having looks of concern on their faces.

"Tails, you alright?" Knuckles asked. "We saw you run away from Sonic's…." he didn't finish that sentence, as if even he didn't want to say it.

Tails said nothing, he just stared at him with a look of sadness on him.

"Tails, I understand Sonic's death isn't easy for you. Believe me, it isn't any easier for me." Amy said. "But I don't think he'll want to see you like this."

"It's my fault." Tails interrupted, turning away from them.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked. "If you're referring to Sonic's death, you're not the one killed him."

"I didn't warn him." Tails interrupted as tears streamed down his face. "He died because of me."

"Tails, it's not your..." Amy tried to say, but Tails stopped her.

"If I had just warned him about the energy sooner, he would still be alive." He cried.

"Tails, you didn't kill him." Knuckles said trying to approach him. However, Tails had run off, feeling devastated over the situation.

"Tails wait." He head Knuckles yell out, but he continued running.

As he ran, he began to notice that he was in a forest now. This is despite recalling that after he ran from Amy and Knuckles, he went to the Tornado to fly back to his home.

Stopping, he looked around at the forest. It was the same one that he'd been in and the same one that Sonic died in, still burnt looking. However, he noticed that there was some grass growing, and a few of the tree's didn't look as burnt and some even had leaves in them.

As he looked around, he began to hear a familiar voice once again.

"Tails, are you there?"

Despite knowing what was gonna happen, Tails ran towards the voice. Eventually reaching the same bog where he once again, saw Sonic standing on the island in the middle of it, facing away from him.

Tails was about to run over to him, but remembering what happened the previous times, he hesitated and looked at the bog Carefully stepping in the bog in front of him, he made his way a bit more slowly then he usually did whenever he was in the dream.

He eventually reached to where the island and approached Sonic. Just as he was about a few feet away from him, Sonic spoke.

"They still don't believe you about Metal don't they?" Sonic asked.

Tails lowered his head. "Not really." he replied.

"Figures." Sonic said. "He was one of Eggman's robots."

"But I think Rouge believed me." Tails added, hoping he could get Sonic to see that Metal wasn't shunned by everyone. "Why else would she let him go?

"Well even if she did believe you about Metal, almost everyone doesn't believe you." Sonic replied.

"They will eventually." Tails said. "They just need time."

Sonic gave him no reply at that.

Tails sighed and looked away from him. 'It's not really him.' He thought. 'It's just a manifestation for my dream. Just to remind me of my failure to save him.'

Suddenly, Sonic spoke. "You can stop blaming yourself you know."

Tails looked at Sonic in surprise. "What?"

Sonic turned to him with a small smile. "My death. You can stop blaming yourself for it.

"But..." Tails stammered. "I didn't warn you what would happen if the energy became unstable. You died because of me."

Sonic shook his head. "I didn't die because of you. Running away out of the city with the Tortoise was my only option after what you told me."

"But if I warned you before the energy became unstable, I still could've saved you."

"And how would I have dealt with the tortoise with the information you found out?" Sonic asked. "Let's not forget I also had to deal with Metal Sonic."

"But maybe if I told you how to neutralize it, maybe you wouldn't have died." Tails argued.

Sonic crouched down at Tails. "Look, I know that you're trying to think of ways you could've saved me, but what happened happened. You need to accept that what happened to me wasn't your fault.

"But..." Tails tried to say before he heard something.

Looking to his left, he once again saw the Tortoise robot.

Knowing what was coming next, Tails looked away and sighed sadly. The robot exploding not long after. The fire consuming both him and Sonic.

* * *

Tails woke up with a small gasp. As he caught his breath, Metal, who was standing in front of him, turned his head.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." Tails asked. "Just had a bad dream."

He thought about the dream he had. As he did, he realized that the Sonic he spoke to in the dream wasn't as angry at him as before. Sure he was still somewhat dismissive of Metal being good now, but he didn't seem angry at it. He was even trying to convince Tails that his death wasn't his fault.

Still, Tails was uncertain of the latter. He still felt that Sonic died because he didn't warn him.

He turned his head towards Metal, trying to put aside the thought. "How's your thruster after the maintenance I did?"

"After a test I put it though, I have concluded that it can now use it for exactly 16 seconds before malfunctions. With that information, I have also concluded that I will be unable to fly for long periods for now." Metal stated.

"Guess you still need to fly on the tornado." Tails said as he got up.

"Affirmative." Metal replied.

"Well, let's just do some practice with the arm and we can head off to the next emerald."

As Tails got the fake arm and put some sticks in it, Metal analyzed Tails. It was clear to him that he looked a bit distracted given that he kept looking up at him every now and then, like he wanted to tell him something but was reluctant to do so.

He figured it probably had something to do with the talk with Rouge. While he figured that he managed to convince Rouge that he changed, he also knew that she must have asked Tails something that is making Tails act like this at the moment.

He needed to figure out what that was.

After Tails finished setting up the arm, he put on the helmet and approached Metal. "Okay, I want you to just grab the arm and hit the shield in front of me. Understand?"

Metal nodded. "I will attempt to do so."

Tails then begun to swing the arm towards Metal, though in a way that wasn't easy for him to grab. So until he could find an opening, Metal dodged the attacks.

It only took him exactly 7 seconds to figure out an opportunity to grab the arm. When Tails was swinging it to his left, there was an opening that could allow him to catch it.

Just when Tails was swinging it, Metal extended his hand and caught the fake arm. For a few seconds, Tails stared at Metal grabbing the arm. Clearly thinking that Metal finally learned some restraint

Metal then tightened his grip on the arm, causing the sticks to break. He then used his free hand to punch the face guard that Tails was wearing, causing Tails to be knocked to the ground.

Tails sighed in frustration. "I didn't say break the arm, then punch me Metal."

"I apologize." Metal stated. "I will account for that for the next practice."

Tails sighed and began to replace the sticks in the fake arm, glimpsing at Metal every now and then.

"Do you want to talk to me about something?" Metal asked, now seeing an opportunity to talk to Tails.

Tails looked at Metal in surprise. "What?" He asked.

"You keep glancing at me." Metal replied. "This indicates that you want to tell my something, but are reluctant to do so."

Tails looked down. "I want to ask you something. I probably never asked you this at any point since you moved in."

He looked at Metal. "Why did you leave Eggman?"

There was a moment of silence before Metal responded. "I assume Rouge brought then up during your talk with her."

Tails nodded.

"If you think that Sonic's death was a cause of my turn against Eggman, you are partially correct." Metal stated. "But there was another factor in that."

Tails looked at Metal in surprise. "Really? What was it?"

Metal looked away from Tails. "The other factor was that I had no idea what my purpose was anymore."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked in surprise. "Couldn't you still have worked with Eggman even with Sonic dead?"

"I was created for the purpose to be superior Sonic in every way." Metal replied. "When I saw his body after the explosion, I should have felt glad. My nemesis was dead."

Metal then looked away. "But instead, I felt uncertainty for myself"

"But why?" Tails asked, surprised by Metal's answer.

Metal continued. "I was uncertain of what Eggman would do to me after Sonic's death. Would he scrap me, or use me for a different, less important purpose?"

"He still could've had you fight us." Tails pointed out. "After all, it's not like he had you exclusively fight Sonic."

"It would not have been the same." Metal replied. "I could have fought Shadow, and still not feel the same compared to fighting Sonic."

He then lowered his head. "Even the idea of me now being the superior Sonic felt meaningless to me. How could I be better then him if he is willing to sacrifice himself to save others?"

He then sat down on the ground. "I simply felt I had no purpose anymore."

For a few moments Tails was silent. While he knew of Metal's goal of being the superior Sonic, he figured it was never going to happen as Sonic kept beating him, so he never thought about how Metal would react if he did defeat him. Even before Metal arrived at his house, he was too wrapped up in his grief to think about it.

But now, after listening to what Metal said, it surprised him with how he reacted to Sonic's death.

"So you had an existental crisis?" Tails finally asked.

Metal nodded. "If that is what you call it, then yes."

"But why did you wait to leave?" Tails asked. "Why did you stay with Eggman for a bit after Sonic died?"

"It would have caused Eggman to become suspicious." Metal replied. "He would have known I was trying to turn on him. I had to wait for an opportunity to leave. I finally saw one when he ordered me to collect the chaos emeralds."

"And that's when you went to my house." Tails finished.

Metal nodded. "Does that answer your question?"

Tails thought about it for a moment before replying. "I guess so."

He then began to change the sticks in the arm. "We'll practice a few more times, and then we'll fly off to the next location of the emerald."

Metal processed the info for a second before replying. "That is acceptable."

Once the sticks were in the fake arm, Tails put the helmet back on. "Remember, grab then punch, understand."

Metal nodded, and they begun to practice again.

* * *

Meanwhile, at his base, Eggman was watching footage of Metals fight with his robots.

"Hmph. It looks like Metal is going be a bigger nuisance then I thought" Eggman grumbled as he watched the footage.

He expected that Metal wouldn't be deterred by the restraint he put in him. But he didn't expect he would still search for the emeralds, except this time with a different purpose.

"I need to get those emeralds." He said as he stood up and began to pace around. "Even without Metal to retrieve them, they're necessary to my plan."

He thought about it, he knew that he couldn't send his robots to simply fight Metal as he would just destroy them, and he didn't have time to make something that would make would make Metal's restraint go off whenever he attacked his robots. So those were out.

Just then, he realized something. Switching the footage to a map, he looked at several signatures on the map, indicating where the emeralds were.

"Knowing Metal, he and Tails have probably planned to head to the nearest emerald." He said.

He then turned his eyes towards the next nearest emerald. "Of course, I don't have to go after that emerald." He said as he sprouted a grin.

He then turned his eyes towards an area that had four signatures grouped together as his grin got larger. "Of course, I can go for a larger prize first."

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _And we're done. I will say this, don't expect another chapter anytime soon. I'm going to focus on writing a couple more chapters of The Beast Inside before I write another chapter of this story. That and I need to Sort of get an idea for how this next section is going to go._

 _See ya next time._


	14. In Town

**Authors Note:** _Well, it's certainly been awhile since I've updated this, and now an explanation._

 _Simply put, there were multiple reasons why this took so long. One, I had to finish college classes, it was a bit of a busy time and It wasn't easy. Two, I had writers block concerning how to write this part of story. I had other parts of the story planned so far, but not this one. So writing this was a bit tougher in comparison. Three, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, It had me concerned for my safety. Thankfully I don't have to go to my job for now, but still, things are a bit scary for now. So yeah, numerous factors hampered the writing of this chapter. That, and I also was writing a couple of chapters of another story I was working on._

 _Anyway enough apologies, let's get to the chapter._

* * *

The Tornado landed in a clearing that was a few feet away from a forest. Once it had come to a complete stop, Metal and Tails got off.

"Okay Metal, which direction is the emerald in" Tails asked.

Metal processed the info for a few moments. "I am detecting the emerald 74 degrees northwest of where we are." He said.

Tails checked the Miles Electric to see where the emerald is, and looked in the direction that Metal had stated. He saw that there was a town not far from where they were just down a hill.

"Hmm." Tails said as he looked at it.

"Is there something wrong?" Metal asked.

"Well it looks like we'll have to pass through a town on our way to the emerald." Tails answered.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Metal asked.

Tails thought about it. "Actually, I think this could be a good opportunity for you to start getting people to trust you a bit more."

Metal tilted his head. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well I don't think retrieving the emeralds by itself will get everyone to trust you." Tails explained. "I think that interacting and helping others in town will help them realize that you're actually good now."

"Similar to how I had stopped that bandit before we left your home to collect the emeralds?" Metal asked

Tails gave a small smile. "See, you have the right idea already. But you could also do other things to help people. Maybe returning items to them for example."

"I understand." Metal responded.

"Just, if you do stop people from stealing from others, don't break their arms or legs please." Tails added.

Metal processed the info for a moment before replying. "I will keep that in mind when in the town."

"That's good." Tails replied.

They then walked down the hill and towards the town.

* * *

After a few minutes, they arrived at the town and were walking through it. It wasn't too dissimilar to the town that was near Tails' house, with some of the stores Metal had seen in the other town appearing in this one.

Metal had also gotten some glances at others due to his presence, but he and Tails did their best to ignore them. They had expected this as it was fairly obvious Metal was going to stand out, it's not hard to notice a robot that was known to have been with Eggman.

As they were walking, Tails spotted someone familiar.

Looking through the window of a store was a man in a green suit and red hair.

"Is that a person you recognize Tails?" Metal asked.

"Yeah." Tails replied, grabbing Metals arm. "Come on, I think he would make some good practice."

Tails walked over to the man, dragging Metal with him. Metal was temporarily off balance for a moments thanks to that, but managed to regain it quickly.

"Hi Edmund." Tails said once he was close to him.

The man looked at where Tails was, startled at first. Once he saw who it was though, he calmed down a bit.

"Oh hello Tails." He said. "Didn't really expect to see you here."

"Didn't expect you either." Tails replied.

Edmund then took a look at Metal, his expression becoming a bit nervous. "Is that…?

Tails nodded. "Metal, this is Edmund. He teaches at Spagonia University." He said.

Metal stepped forward. "Greetings, I am Metal Sonic. I was created by Eggman to defeat Sonic, but now I..."

Tails cut him off. "I think that's enough information Metal." he said before turning back to Edmunt. "I'm trying to get him to work on his social skills."

Edmund stared at Metal for a couple of seconds before extending his hand. "Well, it nice to meet you." He said nerviously.

Metal stared at his hand for a couple of seconds. As if he was processing what to do.

He looked at Tails for a moment, who gave him a small nod.

Metal then extended an arm and grabbed Edmunds hand, and gave a handshake. Though it was Edmund was the only one moving his arm.

'Okay, that went better then expected.' Tails thought to himself as the two let go.

"So how have you been?" Tails asked Edmund. "Haven't seen since Professor Pickles retirement party last year."

"Well, I've been doing alright." Edmund replied. "It's kind of hard to fill his shoes, but I'm doing my best."

"I understand." Tails said. "He was well liked by the students, so it'd probably be difficult for anyone to take his place."

"Yeah." Edmund said nodding.

"I have never met this professor but he appears to have had an impact on others." Metal said.

Tails looked at him in surprise. "You mean you've never met him? Not even getting a glimpse of him when he was captured by Eggman?"

"Negative. I was deactivated during that period. I only learned about it when Eggman reactivated me 3 years ago."

"I see." Tails replied.

Edmund turned his glance back at Metal. "So how long has he been with you?" he asked.

"About a couple of weeks." Tails replied.

"So, did he kidnap you or…?"

Tails shook his head. "No, he actually came to me one day saying that he quit working for Eggman."

"And you just believed him?"

"I didn't at first. I thought he was just trying to trick me, but when Eggman attacked and he defended me, I saw he really meant it."

"So, he's not going to attack me or anyone else?" Edmund asked.

"Nope." Tails said.

"I will only attack you if I consider you a threat." Metal stated. "Judging from your behavior, I have determined that you are not a threat."

"Oh, well that's reassuring." Edmund said.

"It was nice meeting you here." Tails said. "But me and Metal have somewhere else to be."

"I see, well I hope I see you again."

Tails and Metal walked away, with Tails waving Edmund goodbye.

"That man was a lot more nervous towards me compared to others in this town." Metal said once they were far enough from Edmund.

"He was there when Eggman and his robots kidnapped Professor Pickle." Tails explained. "Guess it affected him more then I thought."

As they continued to walk through town, they passed by a couple of women talking outside of a cafe. One with blonde hair, and the other with brown. As they walked by, they listened to them talk.

"So what do you plan on doing this weekend?" The one with brown hair asked.

"Well, I plan on going hiking outside of town with some friends." The blonde one replied.

"Really? You're going to go hike through the forest?" The one with brown hair asked.

"It's been awhile since I've done it. I need to stretch my legs."

"But I've heard rumors of robots showing up outside of town."

"So? They're just rumors for right now. They might've left by then."

"Still, with Sonic gone, it's sort of scary right now. I know that his friends can probably handle his robots, but with the surge of robot activity since his death, I'm afraid Eggman might do something big."

"I understand, things are uncertain right now because of recent events, but I feel it's best to try to remain positive."

As they listened to the conversation, Tails began to feel a bit concerned, which Metal noticed.

"Is something wrong Tails?" Metal asked.

"Eggman's robots have been spotted here." Tails said. "You don't think he knows that we're looking for the emeralds."

"That is a likely possibility." Metal answered. "Eggman can see what his robots see from his base, so he most likely witnessed us destroying them when we retrieved the emerald."

"We can still take them right? Your restraint doesn't extend to Eggman's robots, and even if he changed that, I can still fight them off."

"If Eggman does know that we are trying to get the emeralds, then we will need to consider every possibility." Metal said. "But we should remain focused on getting them before he does."

"Right." Tails replied.

They continued to walk through town, eventually leaving it, as they continued to track down the emerald.

* * *

Moments later, they were going through a forest. Tails was looking at the Miles Electric to see how far they were from the emerald.

"We should be getting close." Tails said. "Detected any robots yet Metal?"

"Negative." Metal replied. "I have not detected any robotic signatures."

"We should remain cautious just in case there's an ambush." Tails replied. "Eggman was able to conceal the signature of the robots before."

They continued walking for a bit. As they walked however, they heard two voices coming.

"Oh man this is bad." A male voice said.

"Look just calm down okay." Another voice said, clearly female.

"How can I be calm?! This has never happened to us before."

Tails and Metal looked at each other as they listened.

"Those do not sound like robots." Tails said.

The two then ran to investigate, the voices getting louder as they got closer.

After a minute of running, they came across two people, a man and woman, wearing blue jumpsuits, climbing equipment, and hard hats with lamps on them.

"We should have checked the equipment." The man said, clearly panicking. "Otherwise this wouldn't have happened."

"Look, there's a town nearby. We can go there and get help so we can get him out." The woman said trying to get him to calm down.

"What would they do?" The man asked. "They probably aren't equipped for this Lindsay."

"Jake, you need to calm down and stop thinking about the worst." The woman, who was named Lindsay said. "I'm sure there's someone in town who can get him out."

"Hey!" Tails called out. "Is there a problem?"

The two turned their heads towards Metal and Tails, a bit surprised by their presence.

"Oh great, now we have a killer robot to deal with." Jake said, seeing Metal.

"He's not gonna hurt you." Tails quickly said.

"You seem to be in great emotional distress." Metal said, observing Jake. "I can assure you that I will not harm you."

Jake didn't say anything, instead continuing to stare at Metal in slight terror.

"I apologize for his behavior. I've been trying to calm him down for the past few minutes." Lindsay said to Tails. "Though I don't think your companion helped matters."

"It's a long story." Tails said. "But what exactly happened?"

"Well, we we're going to explore this small cave system. But when we were lowering the third member of our group down, the rope snapped and now our friend is trapped in the cave."

"Is he alive?"

"Yeah, but he's injured." Jake said. "He's probably going to starve down there and..."

"Be quiet." Lindsay yelled at.

Tails turned to Metal. "Metal, I think you should investigate where the caver fell, I'll try to calm him down."

Metal nodded and turned to Lindsay. "Where was the location that this person fell from?"

"Uh." Lindsay said, hesitant to answer at first. "It shouldn't be far, just a few feet in that direction entrance."

She pointed to her right.

"Thank you." Metal replied and he began walking in that direction.

He eventually came across a rope that was tied to a tree on one end. The other end was going into a hole in the ground. Walking over to the hole, he began to pull up the rope to assess the damage of the rope.

After awhile, he reached the damaged end of the rope. Looking down at the hole, he knew that he couldn't assess how injured the person might be without knowing how deep the cave went.

Dropping the rope and picking up a small rock, he walked over to the edge if the hole and prepared to drop it to determine how deep the hole was.

Just as he was about to drop it however, an alert came on his screen.

WARNING: GROUND UNSTABLE.

Metal looked down and saw that some of the ground he was standing on was collapsing into the cave below.

Dropping the rock down the hole, he activated his thruster and flew backwards a few feet from the collapsing ground. Landing safely back on the ground.

A few seconds later, he heard the rock land on the ground below. Calculating the length of the rope when it snapped, and the how deep the cave was by the rock falling, he concluded that the fall the person went through was survivable, but it would result in an injury.

"Metal, you okay?" He heard Tails ask. "I heard you activate your thruster."

"Affirmative." Metal replied turning towards him. "I had a slight hassle with the ground collapsing."

"Okay, but can you get the person stuck in there out?"

Metal was about to reply, when another warning came across his screen.

WARNING: ENEMY COLLISION IMMINENT!

The warning also came with an indicator pointing upwards.

Looking up, he saw that one of Eggman's buzz bombers flying right towards him at full speed. Before he had any chance to react, the bee collided with him and the two ended up falling into the cave. As he fell, he could hear Tails scream in terror.

"METAL!"

* * *

 **Authors** **Note:** _Heh, almost 4 months of silence and I decide to end this chapter on a cliffhanger. Hopefully the wait between the next chapter won't be as long._


	15. The Cave

**Author's Note:** _Well look at this, the chapter didn't take 4 entire months to write. I don't really have anything else to say, so enjoy the chapter._

* * *

Metal and the buzz bomber fell down the cave entrance as they struggled. The buzz bomber was trying to fly away from Metal and leave him to fall, but Metal had kept a strong grip on it.

After a few seconds, they landed on the ground. The buzz bomber still tried to fly away, but Metal grabbed one of the wings with his free hand, ripping them off.

Metal then finished it off the buzz bomber by slamming it against a nearby stone wall multiple times before it stopped moving.

Metal dropped the now deactivated robot and analyzed his surroundings. Looking up and seeing the hole he fell through, he concluded that he was exactly 102 ft below the surface. Not too far down and could easily fly out of the cave with the condition his thruster was in.

However, he knew that there was still the caver that was injured in there, and he concluded that searching for him and getting him out as well was a priority.

Not only that, but his emerald detector was telling him a Chaos Emerald was nearby. Locating that was also a priority.

Just as he was about to explore the cave, he heard something.

"Is someone there? Hello?"

Metal stopped and began to scan for vitals in the area he was in. As he did so, the voice spoke again.

"Hey, did Lindsay send help? Come on, just say something."

Metal finally detected a vital sign. It was just ahead of him and not too far behind the rock wall.

He walked towards where the person was. As he did so, the person continued to talk.

"Oh, so you're just gonna come to me. That's fine too I guess, it's not like I have a broken arm that needs some medical attention right now."

Metal got past the rock wall and turned towards where the voice was coming from. He found a man with scraggly brown hair and a short beard wearing a similar blue jumpsuit to his companions up above. He saw that his hard hard was lying next to him, and that he was clutching his left arm in pain.

The moment he caught sight of Metal, his expression changed from relief, to fear.

"Oh come on give me a break already." The man said. "Now a killer robot has found me?"

"Do not attempt to panic." Metal stated. "I am not here to kill you."

"Oh that's what you'd probably say to lure me into a false sense of security." The man said, somewhat terrified of him. "Well guess what, I'm not falling for your tricks."

As he spoke, Metal noticed that the man's right hand was heading towards the hard hard. It did not take long for Metal to figure out what he intended to do with it, ineffective as the result was going to be.

"Take this!" The man said as he swung his hard hat towards Metal.

Metal immediately grabbed the arm and stared at the mans terrified face for a bit.

It was clear that the man was clearly terrified. His arm was injured and was terrified of being stuck down here, Metal's presence most likely did not help matters.

However, it was clear to Metal that the man did not intend to harm anyone, and it was clear that he only attacked Metal out of fear of him. The man was not a thief or a criminal, just an ordinary human who is terrified.

He knew that he had to calm the man down and assure him he is not a threat.

Metal grabbed the hard hat and took it out from the mans hand and let go of his arm.

"Let me see your broken arm." He stated.

The Man stared at him for a few seconds, unsure of whether to trust the robot. He then shakily offered his injured arm.

Metal laid it on his arm and analyzed the arm to determine the injury. During his time at Tails's house, Metal had analyzed some medical books for info on treating injuries. Before leaving Eggman, he had determined that learning such information to be unimportant, but now that he was against him, he figured that it would not hurt to learn about treating injuries.

He then finished analyzing the injury and looked at the man.

"You have suffered a fracture in your left arm most likely caused by your fall." He stated to him.

"Yeah, I kind of figured." The man said. "Can you do something about it?"

"I can make a splint to stabilize the bones. But you will need to get to a hospital for further treatment."

"Can you actually make a splint down here?" The man asked. "Cause I don't really have anything that can set my arm."

"I will figure something out." Metal stated.

He then looked at the hard hat. In his previous analysis of the hole, he found that his voice could potentially reach the top of the hole, and would be able to communicate with Tails.

Of course, judging from analysis of Tails throughout the journey, he could tell that Sonic's death was still affecting him, and he most likely was not reacting well to what happened.

He picked the hat up, an idea coming to mind before he turned to the man. "Do you mind if I borrow this?"

"Uh, sure, what are you going to use it for?" The man asked.

"I need to send a message to a friend that is on the surface." Metal answered as he walked towards the hole.

* * *

Up on the surface, Tails was staring at the hole down to the cave, frozen in shock.

It had happened so fast. One moment Metal was about to answer Tails, the next, a buzz bomber slammed into Metal and knocked him into the cave.

Tails had expected Metal to deal with the robot quickly and fly back out. But so far, there was no sign of him.

Tails tried to calm himself down, Metal was a robot, he could survive that fall, and maybe thanks to some of the repairs Tails made to his thruster, he could be able to fly out.

However, he kept thinking of Metal getting knocked into the cave, and his hand began to slightly shake.

It reminded him of what happened to Sonic.

How he failed to warn him of the tortoise's unstable energy.

For a moment, Tails could only hear the sound of his breathing as he felt panic take over him.

He possibly lost someone close to him again. All because he wasn't able to warn him.

Meanwhile, Jake and Lindsay had noticed Tails freezing up and rushed over to him.

"Hey, you okay?" Lindsay asked.

Tails didn't say anything. He just continued to stare ahead at the hole, his hands continued to shake.

"Are you worried about your robot friend?" Jake asked, trying to comfort Tails. "I'm sure he can survive a fall like that."

Tails however, began to quietly mutter to himself. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault."

"What you mean?" Lindsay asked, confused by Tails. "None of us saw that flying robot coming, it caught all of us by surprise. So you're not to blame with what happened with that robot."

"If I was with with him I could've spotted it." Tails said. "But I wasn't and now he's gone."

"Hey just calm down, we can get help and rescue both of him and our guy." Jake said. "He's not really gone."

Tails said nothing, still breathing heavily from panic. He was now beginning to hear some clanking noises coming from the cave.

"What's that sound?" Jake asked. "Is is one of the robots?"

"I don't think so." Lindsay said. "Sounds a bit too much like one of our hard hats."

Tails listened to the clanking from the cave. As he listened, he slowly began to realize something. Even in his state of shock, Tails remembered that one of the cavers was also trapped in there, and he most likely had a hard hat with him like the other two.

He turned to Jake. "Did the guy who fell in attempt to do something like hit his hard hat against the wall?" He asked.

"Uh, no." Jake replied. "He didn't attempt to do anything like that."

Without thinking Tails ran forward to the cave entrance, wanting to know now if Metal was still there.

Looking down he saw that Metal was indeed standing there, he was holding what looked like a hard hat that Tails assumed he used to make the sounds.

"Metal!" Tails cried out, hoping that his voice could reach him. "Metal, can you hear me?"

Metal looked up, seeing Tails looking down on him. He then dropped the hat and replied to him.

"Affirmative, I can hear you." He said.

Tails breathed a sigh of relief. "You okay, any damage you sustained in that fall?"

"Negative, no major damage sustained."

Jake rushed over and peered down at the cave. "Did you find Chris? Is he alive?"

Metal appeared to look back at something before looking back up. "Is that the mans name?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah, that's him. Is he okay?"

"He has sustained a broken arm and will need medical attention at a hospital, but he is alive." Metal replied.

"That's great." Jake said before he turned to Tails. "He can fly right? He can just grab Chris and fly him out?"

"Yeah, but his thruster is a bit damaged." Tails answered before turning back to Metal. "Can you fly him out in your thrusters current state?"

"Negative, the persons weight will slow my ascent, and in the thrusters current state, will be unable to get him out on my own." Metal answered.

"Well how are we gonna get him out?" Lindsay asked as she joined the others.

"I will figure something out." Metal replied. "But right now, I have another priority to deal with."

"Something other then getting Chris out?" Jake asked, slightly baffled.

Tails meanwhile, knew what that other priority was. "The Chaos Emerald is down there isn't it?" He asked.

Metal nodded. "Affirmative."

"If you think that retrieving it first is important, then you can do that. Just make sure you figure out a way to get the trapped caver out of there as well." Tails said.

"I will." Metal replied. "I will let you know when I figure out a plan."

He then grabbed the remains of the buzz bomber, ripping off the remaining wing on it. He picked up the other wing from off the ground and walked out of view of the three.

"So how long will it take for him to find the emerald?" Lindsay asked.

"Well if the cave is small, hopefully not long." Tails replied.

* * *

Down in the cave, Metal approached Chris with the wings.

Chris stared at the wings. "Are you gonna use those to make a splint?"

Metal then raised his finger, causing Chris to flinch in terror. However, Metal placed his finger on the jumpsuit and began to cut it using his finger.

He then removed the cut sleeve and placed it on the ground, using his finger again to cut it in half.

He then looked at Chris. "May I see your arm?"

Chis stared at him for a few seconds before he lifted his arm towards Metal.

Placing the wings against both sides of the arm, he tied them together using the cut up sleeves. Chris winced as Metal tightened the knots on the arm.

"That should set the bone in your arm until you get further medical attention." Metal said.

"Thanks, I guess." Chris said as he examined the splint. "Can we get out of here now?"

"Negative." Metal stated. "I have something else I must do down here. You will stay where you are."

Chris sighed. "Well I've spent an hour trapped in this cave, I'm pretty sure I can survive a bit longer down here."

Metal then activated his emerald tracker and turned in the direction that the emerald was in. "I will be back." He said before walking deeper into the cave.

As he traveled into the cave, it got darker. This was no issue for Metal as he activated his night vision.

Eventually, he came a wall with a gap that he could squeeze through. Positioning himself so his chest and back are facing the gap, Metal slowly made his way through the gap and eventually exited on the other side of the gap.

He found himself in an open area of the cave. With rock walls surrounding him and a small cliff ahead of him. His emerald detector also showed that the emerald was somewhere in the area.

Following the direction of where the emerald was, he walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked over it. Down below, he saw that some stalagmites were rising from the floor, but there was still enough room to walk around down below.

Judging by how far the floor below was to the cliff he was standing on, he concluded that his thruster in it's current state would be able to get back up here once he had secured the emerald.

Jumping down the cliff, he once again began to follow the direction where his emerald detector is leading him. After a few steps however, his detector indicated that he should be going the other way.

Stopping he turned around and began to scan the local area for the emerald. After about a few seconds, he got a reading to his left. Turning his head in that direction, he saw a Chaos Emerald lodged between two of the stalagmites.

Walking over to it and grabbing it, he tried to pull it out. However, it appeared that it was more stuck then he originally thought.

He turned the emerald as he continued to try and pull it out, trying to get it less stuck. Eventually, he managed to get it loose enough to pull it out.

Bringing it closer, he scanned it to see conform it was real. After a few seconds, the results came back positive.

Putting the emerald away, he walked back over to the cliff and looked up. He activated his thruster and flew back up to the top of the cliff.

Looking back down at the floor below, he began to think of an idea to get both him and Chris out of the cave, one that involved the use of his thruster.

He then began to make his way back to where Chris was, running simulations of the plan in his head.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chris was still lying against the wall, waiting for Metal to get back.

He began to hear metallic footsteps coming towards him. Looking in the direction they came from, he saw Metal returning.

"Did you find what you need?" Chris asked.

"Affirmative." Metal replied. "And I have an idea how to get us out of here."

"Okay, so what is it?"

"First, can you walk?"

Chris thought about it for a moment. "Think so, I probably injured one of my legs in the fall, though I don't think it's as bad as the arm."

"I will try to assist you in walking." Metal stated. "In addition, I will need to use your hard hard to signal the others outside."

"Okay, fine by me."

Chris then began to slowly lift himself up, with Metal trying his best to help him. Eventually, he managed to lean himself against the wall.

"Okay." Chris said. "Let's go."

He took a few steps forward before stumbling, causing him to lean on Metal a bit.

"Sorry." He said.

Metal simply glared at him for a couple of seconds before they continued on, albeit slowly.

They eventually reached where the cave entrance was, and Metal picked up the hard hat and tapped on the rock wall.

The heard some jogging up above and not long after, they saw Tails, Lindsay, and Jake peeking down at the entrance.

"Chris, is that you?" Jake asked noticing him leaning against the wall.

Chris gave a small wave. "Yeah, it's me."

Tails looked at Metal. "Do you have a way of getting you two out?"

Metal nodded. "Affirmative. First you will need to lower the rope."

Lindsay took a look back at the rope before looking back down at Metal. "You sure? That rope isn't going to be able to reach you two." She said.

"Just lower it." Metal stated. "I know what I am doing."

Lindsay paused for a moment before going out of view for and returning a few seconds later, tossing down the rope. She was indeed right, the rope was about 20 feet above Metal and Chris.

"Okay, now what?" She asked.

"I will need you, Jake, and Tails to grab the rope, and wait until I tell you to pull it." Metal answered.

"Okay, that sounds pretty simple." Jake said.

The three then went out of view of the entrance. At the same time, Metal gave Chris the hard hat.

"I recommend you wear this on the trip back up." Metal said.

Chris grabbed the hat and put it on. "So what exactly is your plan?" he asked as he did so.

"My thruster in my current state can only work for 16 seconds before it starts to malfunction. Combined with your weight, we will not be able to reach the entrance of the cave." Metal explained.

He then indicated to the rope. "This rope is close enough for us for you to grab it with your uninjured hand. Once you grab it, I will get the others to pull the rope and I will activate the thruster again, allowing us to get out."

Chris stared at Metal. "You sure this will work?"

"I processed simulations of the plan in my head. The success rate is exactly 82%."

"Well, that's reassuring."

"Just be prepared to grab the rope. I would find it preferable then us falling back down."

Metal then picked up Chris, carrying him in his arms. Looking up, he activated his thruster.

For a couple of seconds, due to the weight of Chris, the force of the thruster struggled to lift both of them up. However, it eventually began to propel them upward.

They eventually reached the rope, with Chris reaching out with his uninjured arm and grabbing it.

Metal deactivated his thruster for a moment.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Chris asked, noticing this.

Metal ignored him and looked up at the cave entrance. "Pull now!" he said.

Immediately, the rope began to lift itself up. Though it was clear that even with two people and a two tailed fox pulling the rope, they were struggling to lift the person hanging on. Not only that, but Chris's hand was beginning to slip from the rope.

At that moment, Metal activated his thruster again, causing them to continue flying up.

They eventually flew out of the entrance of the cave and saw the others pulling the rope, with Tails using his Tails to add some strength to his own pull.

Just then, Metal's thruster began to malfunction, flickering on and off. Knowing he couldn't sustain the flight any longer, he quickly flew near the edge of the entrance and dropped Chris onto the ground in front of the three.

At that moment, Metal's thruster shut down and he began to fall back in. Fortunately however, he managed to grab the edge of the cliff before he fell back down again.

As he climbed up the ledge, he saw Lindsay and Jake check on Chris as he lied down.

"How are you feeling Chris?" Lindsay asked.

"Well aside from having a broken arm and an injured leg, I'm okay." Chris said as he gave a small smile through some of the pain.

"Well you're certainly not gonna do any caving any time soon." Jake remarked.

Chris gave a small chuckle at that.

While all this was going on, Metal noticed Tails catching his breath near the rope.

Deciding to check on him, Metal walked over to him.

"Are you okay Tails?" Metal asked.

"Yeah." Tails said in between breaths. "I'm okay."

He then looked at Metal. "You have the emerald?"

Metal got the emerald out and showed him it. "That leaves us with only one emerald to collect."

Tails smiled. "That's good. Once we've got the last one, we can deliver them to Knuckles."

"Hey, robot."

Metal turned his head and saw that Jake had run over to him.

"Hey, sorry that I thought that you were gonna kill us." He said. "It's just that I'm used to thinking you work with Eggman."

"That is okay." Metal said. "I have come to expect that kind of reaction from others for now."

"Well, I'm sure others will start to figure out that you're not that bad anymore."

"Well we're working on it." Tails replied. "But we have somewhere else to be."

"Well good luck." Jake said before turning to Metal. "Oh, and Lindsay wanted to talk to you."

Metal was confused for a moment. "Why?" He asked.

Jake shrugged. "I don't know, she just said she wanted to talk to you."

Metal looked back at Tails, who seemed just as confused as Metal.

"Start heading back to the Tornado." Metal said. "This should not take long."

Tails stared at him for a few seconds before nodding and walking off. Metal then walked past Jake and headed towards Lindsay, who was watching over Chris.

As he approached her, she turned her head and saw him. "Oh you're here."

"You wanted to speak with me." Metal said.

Lindsay nodded. "It's about your friend."

"You mean Tails." Metal said. "What is it about him that you want to discuss with me?"

"It's about how he reacted after you fell down the cave." She answered. "When you fell down, he just seemed to freeze. Not just that, he started muttering that it was his fault. He only seemed to calm down once he found out you were still alive."

"I see." Metal said.

"You know anything about this?" Lindsay asked.

"I have seen him act like this a couple of times." Metal answered. "And I suspect the cause of this behavior."

"Well you better talk to him about it." Lindsay said. "Because I think it might happen again if this goes unaddressed."

"I intended on talking about it once we were done with our current objective." Metal stated. "But if you think that it might happen again, I will talk about it now."

Lindsay nodded. "I think that's the best option right now."

Metal then walked away. He knew that Sonic's death had affected Tails, and that he suspected that he blamed himself for it.

But if this trauma was deeper then he thought, then it was time to confront Tails on it.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : _I don't really have much to say in the authors note other then you can expect the next chapter soon._

 _See you next time._


	16. Admission

Metal and Tails walked through the forest. Though Tails was moving a bit more quickly then Metal, who was walking at a more casual pace.

"Come on Metal." Tails said, noticing Metals slower pace. "If we get to the Tornado quickly, we can get to the final Emerald in no time."

"We must be cautious though." Metal stated. "Eggman could be setting an ambush for us at the final emerald."

"That's why we need to get there as soon as we can. So Eggman doesn't have time to set up an ambush."

Metal simply stared at Tails and continued his casual pace. He knew they were getting close to the town, and he wanted to talk to Tails about Sonic's death soon.

After a few more steps, he figured that now was the time to talk. He immediately stopped walking and stood where he was.

After a few seconds of running, Tails noticed that Metal wasn't following him. Rather, he was standing still and looking straight at him.

"Uh Metal, you okay?" Tails asked, walking back over to him.

"Tails, we need to talk." Metal stated.

"About what?" Tails asked confused.

"What happened to you when I feel into the cave."

Tails flinched a bit, realizing what Metal was referring to.

"Uh, can we talk about this later?" He said, shuffling his feet nervously. "Like, after we get to the plane, or after we deliver the emeralds to Angel Island and we're back home."

"I would prefer that we talk about it now."

Tails gave a small, nervous chuckle. "Look, that panic attack I had when you fell in, I just overreacted. It won't happen again, I promise."

"I am not so sure about that." Metal replied. "With how you appeared to react, I have concluded that there is a high possibility of it happening again."

"It won't okay. Now can we please head to the tornado and get the last emerald?"

"No!" Metal said, a bit louder then before. "We must talk about it right here. If you do not confront it now, it could happen again."

"It won't, I swear." Tails said, trying desperately to get out of the conversation.

"I do suspect the cause of this panic attack." Metal continued. "And I suspect it was the result of trauma related to Sonic's death."

"Wh..what?!" Tails stammered. "I...I know that I was depressed for almost a couple of weeks after his death, but once you came along, I started getting better. It's just that you falling down the cave brought back bad memories, but I calmed down once I found out you were alive."

"It is true that you have recovered a bit from his death thanks to me. But I still detect signs of depression from you, and I suspect there is something that is preventing you from moving on."

"There's nothing that's preventing me from moving on, I'm fine." Tails said defensively, though it was clear he was struggling to keep his composure.

"I have seen evidence on the contrary." Metal stated. "You have clearly not gotten over his death yet, and there is something preventing you from doing so."

Tails said nothing, but Metal could see him beginning to shake. He did not like being forceful at Tails like this, but this was the only way to get him to confront his trauma.

"When I went into your workshop after Silvers visit, when you broke down, you said something about his death being your fault. When Lindsay talked to me, she mentioned saying something similar during your panic attack."

"Metal...please..." Tails said, tears were beginning to stream down his face. "I'm fine."

"Is the reason you are unable to move on from his death is because you blame yourself for it?"

Tails didn't reply. Instead, he began to collapse on his knees and began to cry.

Metal walked over to Tails and put his hand on his head. "It is okay."

"No it's not." Tails said in between sobs. "I caused Sonic's death because I didn't warn him."

Metal looked down at him. "You are referring to the instability of the tortoise's power source are you." He asked, recalling what happened when Sonic died.

"Yes." Tails said, lightly nodding as he continued to cry. "I didn't warn him of it, and now he's dead because of me. I could've found out and told him about what would happen if the energy became unstable, but I was to focused on landing the plane safely to tell him before it happened."

He then began to pound his fist against Metal's chest. "And now he's dead because of me." He said, saying each word louder then the first.

Metal simply stood and listened Tails cry for a minute. He knew Tails was letting out all that grief and sadness he had bottled up over the past couple weeks. There were times Metal saw some of those emotions leak out at points, but now he was witnessing him letting all of them out.

Tails continued to cry. "I should've been there when he died. Maybe then I could've prevented it."

Metal listened for a few more seconds. He knew that he had to find a way to comfort him and reassure Tails that it was not his fault that Sonic died.

"Tails, Sonic made the choice to sacrifice himself to save others." He said. "He did not appear to have any anger towards you for not warning him of what would happen if the tortoise's energy became unstable."

"Still doesn't change the fact that I didn't warn him." Tails said.

Metal was silent, he knew that trying to reassuring him will not be enough. He had to take a different approach, and he figured out something that might work.

"Would you have done it if you were in his place?" He asked.

Tails looked up at Metal, somewhat surprised by the question. "What?"

"If you were in Sonic's place instead of him when he had to take the tortoise away from the city to prevent it from being destroyed, would you have done it?"

Tails looked away from Metal, thinking about what he said. "I'm...not sure."

"I am certain you would do the same. Given how much you look up to him, you would want him to live as much as the others in the city."

"But…. How would Sonic react if I did so?"

Metal looked away for a moment. "I do not know. Perhaps he would have grieved your loss in a similar way."

He then looked back at Tails. "But I am certain he would not blame himself for your death if you sacrificed yourself."

Tails simply stared at him. He was no longer sobbing, but tears were still streaming down his face and his expression was sadness mixed with uncertainty.

Metal then kneeled down and gave Tails a hug. It took a few seconds for Tails to register the hug, but when he finally did, he hugged him right back.

They held on to each other for a few seconds before Metal released Tails from the hug.

"Come on, we should head to the Tornado." Metal said. "I think you should get some rest after what happened recently."

"I guess you're right." Tails replied. "Maybe some rest will help me to calm down and think about what you said."

Metal nodded. "That appears to be a good idea."

The two then walked back towards the tornado, walking through the town as they did so.

Eventually, they reached the plane and Metal simply stood near the plane and looked up at the sky, while Tails sat down against the plane and stared into the distance.

He thought about what Metal had asked him. What would he have done if he was in Sonic's situation?

Of course, he would probably try to figure out how to neutralize the tortoise's energy so it won't blow up. But what if there wasn't enough time to figure it out? Would he sacrifice himself to save his brother, as well as others?

He then thought about Sonic, and his possible thoughts when he sacrificed himself. He most likely knew he wasn't going to make it and was going to die, but he also knew that was going out making sure thousands of lives were saved.

But most importantly, he was going to die knowing that his brother was going to be safe, feeling no anger at him for not warning him. If he had to sacrifice himself to make sure of that, it would be fine by him.

Oddly enough, that idea felt reassuring to Tails, and he began to think of the situation with that mindset.

After a few minutes, he realized the answer to the question Metal asked him. He would indeed sacrifice himself if it meant that others would live.

With that thought, he gave a small smile and closed his eyes to take a brief nap.

* * *

Meanwhile, Amy was at Creams house, watching over her with as she drew. She was visiting her house at the request of Vanilla to have a friend to play with for today.

Cream had been drawing for about half an hour, with Cheese helping her by giving her crayons.

"So what are you drawing Cream?" Amy asked.

Cream stopped drawing and showed Amy what was on the paper, revealing it to be a drawing of Sonic.

Amy looked at it for a few seconds, feeling some sadness, before replying. "That's nice."

"Sorry if I hurt your feelings Amy." Cream said putting the drawing down. "I just really miss Mr. Sonic."

"Chao." Cheese said in sadness.

"No it's okay." Amy replied. "I miss him just as much as you do Cream."

"My mom has been helping me get through his death, but I'm wondering how the others are handling it." Cream said. "Especially Tails, since none of us have seen him since the funeral, and he was the closest to him."

"Don't worry, Tails is doing fine." Amy reassured Cream. "I visited a while ago and he's recovering."

'He has a killer robot version of Sonic living with him.' She thought to herself. 'But recovering nonetheless.'

At that moment, Vanilla came into the room. "Cream, lunch is almost ready." She said.

She then turned to Amy. "Are you gonna stay and have lunch with us Amy?"

Amy nodded. "Yeah, just let me clean up the table for you." She said as she began to clear the crayons from off the table, putting them in the box that they came from.

As she walked over where she got the crayons, she overheard a news story from the radio.

"In other news, a caving expedition turned into a nightmare when the rope snapped and ended up trapping one of cavers down in a small cave. He was trapped there for an hour before he was rescued." The reporter said. "Now get ready for the real surprising part, the identity of the one who rescued him is none other then Metal Sonic."

Amy stopped when she heard Metal's name and continued to listen.

"For those who don't know, Metal Sonic is a robot created by Eggman and has worked with him in his attempts to stop Sonic, so the idea that he saved someone might be surprising to both you and me. Not only that, but there have also been reports of him traveling around with Tails, Sonic's sidekick until the hedgehog's recent death. As of right now, his reasons for traveling with the former hero's robotic copy is unknown, but the question still remains. Just why is Metal Sonic traveling with Tails and saving others?"

As the reporter went on to her next story. Amy thought about her visit to Tails awhile back. She remembered Metal appearing and her attacking him, thinking he was a threat. Even after Tails had explained things, she didn't believe that Metal had turned good.

But now, after hearing the news report and thinking back to her visit, she began to rethink a few things.

She remembered in her visit, she realized Metal didn't attempt to attack her when she swung her hammer at him. Plus even before she attacked him, he didn't seem to appear hostile towards her or Tails.

On top of all that, she couldn't find another reason for Metal saving the caver other then the obvious answer.

The more she thought about it, the more she began to think that maybe Tails was right about Metal.

"Amy, did you put away the crayons?" She heard Vanilla cry out.

"Uh, not yet." She answered, snapping out of her thoughts. "I'll put them away as quickly as I can."

She moved quickly and put the box of crayons away before heading back to the dining table. While she was still uncertain of Metal, she made a mental note to ask Tails to speak to Metal the next time she met with him.

* * *

Meanwhile, on Angel Island, Knuckles was guarding the temple that contained the four emeralds there, as well as the Master Emerald.

As he did so, Knuckles took a brief look back at the temple. A couple days after Sonic's funeral, Amy had come up to him with the emeralds she had and told them to bring them to Angel Island to protect them.

He understood the reason why she wanted to protect them, with Sonic gone, the emeralds were going to a lot more vulnerable to Eggman. Plus, given Eggman's appearance at Sonic's funeral, it was likely he was planning something.

He didn't know where the other three were at the moment, though Amy had recently contacted him and told him Tails was working on locating them. The latter was surprising to him given that he assumed that Tails was still grieving from Sonic's death, but he assumed Tails had probably recovered from some of it.

Suddenly however, he heard noises coming in front of him. Turning his head back forward, he saw a swarm of robots coming towards him, led by a familiar Doctor.

"Oh ho ho." Eggman laughed as he and his robots approached Knuckles. "Why hello there Knuckles."

"What are you doing here Eggman?" Knuckles asked in anger. "On second thought, I know exactly what you're here for."

"Of course you do." Eggman replied. "I'm here for the emeralds you have."

Knuckles got into a defensive position. "Not a chance Eggman, you're gonna have to go through me in order to get them."

Eggman frowned at response. "Fine then, have it your way."

He then turned towards his robots and pointed at the echidna. "Get him."

The robots flew towards Knuckles as he prepared to defend himself.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : _And so the path to the climax has begun. But don't expect another chapter of this story yet, need to work on my other story._

 _See you next time._


	17. Ambush

Knuckles slammed his fist down at the robot, which twitched for a moment before shutting down. Turning behind him, he saw another robot leaping towards him. Knuckles quickly reacted by giving it an uppercut, sending it flying and it landed a few feet away from him.

Knuckles let out several deep breaths as he looked around for anymore robots. Finding none he turned to where Eggman was to confront him, only to find that he wasn't there.

Knuckles looked around for him. Where could he have gone? Did he flee when he started destroying the robots? Did he fly away to put himself in a bigger robot?

Then he realized something, Eggman said he was here for the emeralds. He most likely used the robots as a distraction for Knuckles while he stole them. Taking them away for use in whatever he has planned.

Knuckles quickly turned around and ran to where the emeralds were as fast as he could. It was times like these when he wished Sonic was around, he probably could've been there and stopped Eggman before Knuckles even arrived.

He managed to get to the temple where the emeralds were. Just as he reached the entrance however, he saw the top of the temple blast open, raining down debris around the area.

About a second later, Eggman rose from out of the temple, his ship carrying a capsule containing the four emeralds. Below that, to Knuckles horror, was also the Master Emerald being held by a chain.

"Oh ho ho ho." Eggman laughed as he looked at the horrified look on Knuckles face. "You should have been paying more attention to the emeralds you had."

The ship Eggman was on then began to ascent. "Well, I have to go. I'll be needing these emeralds for my plan."

Breaking out of his shock, Knuckles began to ran towards the ship, climbing up the temple to get to where it is. He managed to leap up and grab the master emerald just before it got out of his reach.

Climbing up on it, he began to punch the chain that was holding the master emerald to make it weaker, pulling the chain every now and then to try and separate it. As he did so, Eggman noticed him trying to free the master emerald, and he tilted his ship from side to side to try and shake Knuckles off.

Knuckles held onto the chain however, and continued punching it. Though he realized he had to free the Master Emerald fast, as Eggman was getting close to the edge of the island. So he increased the frequency of his punches, and pulled harder.

Taking a quick glance to see how far Eggman still had to go, he saw that he was nearing the edge of the island. Knowing he had no time left, he brought his fist back for a big punch, and hit the chain again.

 _CLINK_

The chain broke apart and the Master Emerald, and Knuckles began to fall down. At the same time, Eggman, hearing the chain break, looked down and saw Knuckles and the Master Emerald falling to the ground.

"Hmph, well that's disappointing." He said before going back to the controls of the ship. "No matter, the 7 emeralds should be enough to power my machine."

Knuckles landed on the ground facing upwards, letting out a small grunt. He saw the Master Emerald about to land not far from him. Quickly rushing over to where it would land, he dived and quickly grabbed the emerald just before it landed.

Once he was certain that it was safe, he turned towards where Eggman was. He could see the silhouette of his ship getting smaller, seeing the capsule containing the four emeralds underneath it.

He knew that this was bad. Eggman just came in and took the four emeralds he had on the island, and was most likely going to go after the last three emeralds. Since Tails was supposedly working on finding them, it was safe to assume that Eggman was going to go find him and take any emeralds Tails had, and use them for whatever he has planned.

He knew he had to warn Amy that Tails was in danger, and that Eggman had four of the emeralds now.

Taking a glance at the Master Emearld, he knew that while he couldn't leave it unguarded, the current situation was a bit more dire and that as soon as he put it back in it's place, he would leave to go to Amy

Picking up the Master Emerald, he carried it back to it's place as fast as possible.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tails was performing maintenance on Metal.

"Okay." Tails said as he turned a bolt inside Metal's exposed insides from the back. "Can you test your emerald scanner? See if it can detect the last emerald from where we are."

Metal began to scan for the emerald. Since Eggman's attack at Tails' home, he had only been able to detect an emerald within a hundred mile radius. Throughout the journey, Tails had made repairs to the scanner, improving it to it's normal standards bit by bit. Now he had to test it to see if it was back to it's full condition.

After a few seconds, he got the location of the emerald. "The emerald is approximately 3100 miles west from where we are now." He stated.

"So I guess we're gonna need the Tornado again huh." Tails remarked after he heard that information.

"You seem to be doing better after our talk." Metal said. He had noticed Tails' change in mood when he had gotten up from his rest. He seemed a bit more pleasant then when he broke down a few minutes ago.

"I thought about what you said when you comforted me." Tails said. "When I pictured myself in Sonic's situation, I realized that I would've done the same thing."

"I am glad I found a way to help with your grief over Sonic's death." Metal said.

Tails covered up the back of Metal and put back the screws that held it in place. Just before Metal was about to stand up, Tails stopped him.

"Hold on. I still need to do one for thing to you."

Metal sat back down, a bit confused by the order. "What is it?" He asked

"Just hold still." Tails replied as he began to unscrew the back of Metal's head.

Once he had removed the back of Metal's head, Tails got a small chip out out and installed it inside his head. After about a few minutes of tinkering, he put the back of his head back on.

Once he had screwed the back of Metal's head back on he began to walk away. Which Metal noticed.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I just need to test something out. I'll be right back." Tails replied.

He walked past the Tornado and turned towards some trees, disappearing from Metal's view.

About a minute later, Metal heard some beeping. It took about a few seconds to process what it was, but he realized it was similar to the sound his old internal radio made.

Metal answered it, assuming it would work the same, and not a second later, he heard Tails' voice.

"Metal, can you hear me?"

Metal paused for a second before responding. "Yes, I can hear you."

"Okay, you're coming out a little fuzzy on my end, but I can understand what you're saying."

Tails then hung up and Metal saw him exit the forest and walk back over to him.

"You installed a radio for me." Metal said. "Were you lying when you said you destroyed the radio?"

Tails scratched the back of his head. "Well, I did study it for a day to see how it worked before destroying it." He explained. "Created this one during the week we were preparing to search for the emeralds."

"If you had it made before we left, then why did you wait until now to install it in me?"

"Well, I wanted to install it once we got back to my house, but after what happened, I figured it's better if we had a way keep in touch in case we're separated."

"I see." Metal replied.

Tails then walked over to the Tornado and took out the fake arm. "Come on, let's do some quick practice with the arm before we go."

He swung the arm at Metal for a bit until he caught it. To Tails' surprise though, Metal didn't break the arm. He instead gave a slow, very light punch to Tails' head.

"Huh." Tails said in surprise of the result of the training this time. "Guess something happened in that cave to make you learn some restraint."

Metal nodded. "Affirmative."

Tails then put the arm back in the Tornado. "Come on, we still have a Chaos Emerald to retreve."

Metal nodded before running over to the Tornado and getting on it. Once he was on, they flew off to the final emerald.

* * *

In the air, the Tornado flew towards it's destination.

"Metal, I want to tell you something." Tails said as he piloted the plane.

"What is it?" Metal asked.

"When we arrive at Angel Island with the emeralds, I want you to stay at the Tornado while I deliver the emeralds to Knuckles."

Metal tilted his head. "Why?"

"I think it's best if I deliver them alone. We don't know how Knuckles will react to you, he could think you're still working with Eggman."

"I see, and what about your other friends?"

"I think it's best if I introduce you to them gradually." Tails replied. "I'm sure saving that person in the cave probably helped, but people probably still think you're still with Eggman and helping others might be an act."

Metal was silent at that.

"Look once we're done with this, we can continue helping others, get more people to realize you don't work with Eggman anymore." Tails continued. "I'll also have the others visit to help show that you're good now. That might help a bit as well."

"If that is what you want to do, then it is fine by me." Metal said. "I understood the process was not going to be a short one."

Tails simply nodded. "You still have a long ways to go before people accept you."

They continued flying the Tornado in silence.

* * *

A few hours later, they landed at a clearing near the location of the final emerald.

As they got off the plane, Tails checked for the location of the emerald.

"Okay, it looks like we're not far from the emerald." Tails said as he looked at the Miles Electric. "It should be in that direction."

He pointed to his right. Metal turned in that direction and saw that the area contained a lake and a small path nearby that led up to a cliff that towered above the two. Using his emerald locator, he detected that the emerald was on top of the cliff.

"The emerald is located on top of that cliff." He stated pointing to where it was.

Tails turned his head to where Metal was pointing. "Huh." He said. "Guess it wasn't as far as I thought."

He then turned to Metal. "Why don't you get it? You can easily fly up there with your thruster, right?"

Metal analyzed the cliff and it's height, comparing it to his thrusters current condition.

"I can reach it with my thruster." Metal stated.

He then turned to Tails. "Are you sure you are going to be okay by yourself? I can easily take you with me."

"I'll be fine." Tails replied. "Besides, it shouldn't take you too long to get the emerald."

Metal turned back to the cliff. "If you say so."

He then activated his thruster and flew to the cliff, leaving Tails alone.

Tails leaned against the Tornado. He thought about all the events that had happened over the past few weeks. It was clear that these events were going to stick with him for a long time. Almost similar to when Sonic saved him from the bullies when he first met him.

His thoughts then wandered to Sonic. He wondered what he would think of this situation. While collecting Chaos Emeralds was definitely something he and Sonic did, the fact that the robotic version of him was accompanying Tails was definitely an oddity. Tails figured that he would probably react the same say he did, not trusting Metal at first, but eventually realizing that he's turned good.

Like most of Tails' recent thoughts on Sonic, they inevitably led to him thinking about his recent death.

He no longer blamed himself for Sonic's death, but there was still a question lingering from within his mind.

Was he ready to move on from Sonic's death?

Sure Metal had helped him get better with coping with his death. But accepting that Sonic wasn't coming back and moving on, that seemed like a hard thing to do. He wasn't even sure it was something that even Metal could help him with.

It was becoming clear to Tails that he was going to have to do that step on his own.

His thoughts were then interrupted when he heard the Miles Electric beeping.

Picking it up, he saw that the screen was notifying him of an incoming call.

He at first assumed Metal was calling to let him know that he found the emerald, but with how short the distance was between the Tornado, and where the emerald was supposedly located, he would've assumed Metal would just fly back to him after finding the emerald.

He answered it anyway, and a voice came through.

"Tails, is that you?" It sounded a bit panicked, but Tails identified the voice as Amy's

"Amy?" Tails asked, surprised that she was calling.

He heard her give a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing I managed to reach you."

"Why, what's going on?" Tails asked, a bit confused.

"Knuckles just came over to my house and told me Eggman came and took the four Chaos Emeralds there." Amy explained. "Where are you right now?"

Tails looked at the cliff. "I'm looking for the last emerald." He answered.

"Get out of there now!" Amy cried out. "Eggman might be coming for you to get the emeralds!"

Tails was quiet for a few moments before he hung up, thinking about what Amy said. Looking around, he didn't see any signs that Eggman had been here. If he had been here, they would've encountered a few robots.

He then realized Metal hadn't returned with the emerald yet. He would've thought that it was taking awhile for him to locate the emerald, but after Amy's call, he wasn't so sure.

Just then, it struck him that Metal was all alone, with the two emeralds they had retrieved, and searching for the last one.

Realizing what this meant, he quickly dialed Metal's radio, hoping he was not too late.

* * *

At the same time, Metal had reached the top of the cliff and was searching for the emerald. Following the tracker to where the emerald should be though, he found that the emerald was not there.

He scanned the area three more times to make sure the tracker was not faulty. But each time, it read that the emerald was in the area.

Metal was confused. Where could the emerald be if he could not see it despite detecting it?

He then heard his radio beep, and he answered it.

"Metal are you there?" Tails' voice asked, sounding a bit frantic.

"Affirmative." Metal responded. "I am still looking for the emerald. Despite what my tracker is telling me, it is not here."

"Get out of there now!" Tails yelled. "It's a trap! Eggman is going to…."

Before he could hear Tails finish his sentence, Metal felt an electric shock that distorted what Tails said into gibberish. He also collapsed onto the ground as a result of the shock.

Slowly getting up, he realized that this electric shock was very familiar. Just like the one when Eggman attacked Tails' house.

"Metal? Metal are you there? The connection seemed to go out for a bit?" He heard Tails ask, clearly concerned.

Just before he was about to reply, another shock came, cutting the connection and forcing him back onto the ground. He then heard very familiar laughing.

Looking up, he saw the Doctor himself walking out from behind some trees. He was holding the emerald in one hand, and a device in the other. He approached Metal looked down on him with an evil grin on his face.

"Hello Metal Sonic." He said. "Long time no see."

* * *

Back at the Tornado, Tails was staring at the Miles Electric. When he tried to warn Metal about Eggman, the connection was disrupted a bit. At first, Tails assumed the radio was malfunctioning.

Then, the call disconnected.

Tails knew that with how Metal is now, he would never disconnect on him without a reason. His sudden disconnection could only mean one thing.

Eggman had got to him.

Tails realized that he couldn't stand here and do nothing. But unlike Metal, he couldn't fly up a cliff that high with just his two tails.

He looked at the path leading up to the cliff, and realized his only option on getting to Metal

Tossing the Miles Electric to the ground, he began running on the path that led to the top of the cliff as fast as he could. As he ran, he prayed he wasn't too late.

Back on top of the cliff, Eggman stared at the collapsed Metal, who glared back up at him.

"You..." Metal said.

Eggman gave a small chuckle. "It's certainly been awhile hasn't it. I see that fox repaired you after our last encounter. Of course, I should know because I've seen you destroy my robots."

Metal simply continued to glare at him while he brought one of his arms back with his hand in a fist. Just as he did that however, another electrical shock hit him.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk." Eggman said shaking his head at Metal. "I thought you would've figured out that you can't attack me. I thought I built you better then that, or did my attack scramble your memory a bit."

He then used his foot to roll Metal on his back and began to search him, continuing to talk as he did so. "I do have you say, you still had a bit of use for me then I thought. When I found that you had abandoned your search for the Chaos Emeralds, I was disappointed and angry."

He then took one of the emeralds from Metal and examined it. "Of course, then I realized I could just take the Emeralds from Angel Island and wait for you to retrieve the last emerald."

He then looked back at Metal. "So I have you to thank for me getting all 7 chaos emeralds."

Metal was horrified at this. While he had expected Eggman to try to get the emeralds, he never expected him to ambush him like this.

Eggman then took the other emeald from him and put it away. "Thank you for helping me Metal. Unfortunately for you, with Sonic gone, I no longer have any more use for you. Now I'm going to finish you off."

Eggman then walked away. Metal got up, hoping that he could get away while Eggman wasn't looking. Unfortunately, just as he got up, another electrical shock came through him.

"Ah ah ah." Eggman said looking back at him. "You're gonna have to stay where you are."

He then walked back into the forest. A few seconds later, Metal heard Eggman's ship start up and he emerged from the trees in it.

A cannon then emerged from the bottom of the ship and aimed right at Metal. He tried to inch away from him, moving closer to the edge of the cliff. He then felt another shock that caused him to stop moving.

"Stay still will you." Eggman said with slight frustration.

He then managed to aim it at Metal.

"Farewell, Metal Sonic."

Just as he fired the cannon, Metal saw Tails emerge from behind Eggmans ship. It was the last thing he saw before the blast hit him and his optic sensors cut out.

* * *

The moment the blast hit Metal, Tails froze for a second. Shocked at what happened, and watching Eggman fly away, not noticing Tails as he did so.

Of course, Tails' main concern right now was Metal, and he ran over to the cliff and jumped off it. Looking down, he saw Metal falling towards the water. He had expected Metal to activate his thruster, but he was still falling down towards the water.

As Tails got closer to him, using his tails to get there sooner, he reached his hand out in order to grab him.

Just as they were about to reach the water, Tails managed to grab Metal's arm and made his Tails hover in the air.

He then flew towards the sand near the water, collapsing as soon as they were above it.

Breathing heavily from exhaustion, Tails checked on Metal. He didn't appear badly damaged, but he searched him, hoping the emeralds were still there. To his dismay though, he didn't find them.

Collapsing on top of Metal, he began to drift asleep. As he did so, there was only one thought running through his mind.

What was he going to do now?

* * *

 **Author's Note** : _And now we have another cliffhanger. I can't exactly spoil what happens in the next chapter, though expect another emotional moment._

 _Also I've figured out how the rest of this story is going to go. Essentially, the final chapter total for this story will be 22. So there are about 5 chapters left for this story._

 _Not only that, but this story has reached over **20,000** views. Once again, I thank you all for getting it there, I never imagined it getting this much when I started this story. It's also almost at 100 followers, which I also thank you for._

 _See ya next time._


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